Earlier this month, the Round Table on Combating Arms Trafficking and Best Practices in Combating Arms Trafficking was held, organized by the United States Embassy in our country. Officials from the Secretariats of Security and Citizen Protection, Foreign Relations, and National Defense participated in it, as well as the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), various state prosecutor’s offices and, on behalf of the US Government, the ambassador Ken Salazar.
The latter pointed out and recognized that 70 percent of the weapons used in violent crimes committed in Mexico by organized crime come from the United States. The Mexican Government has also been stating this in advance since, for example, data from 2019 from the Secretariat of National Defense showed that more than 200,000 weapons of all types enter our territory every year; that is, an average of 567 per day.
What was said and recognized by Ambassador Salazar is in itself important because it represents another step in the fight against arms trafficking, without ignoring the fact that the same US diplomat expressed that one of the main priorities of President Joe Biden’s government is to stop this trafficking. illicit.
Ken Salazar also highlighted that in 2023 this illegal trade in more than 7,350 firearms that were going to be sent to Mexico has been prevented, thanks to the work of United States public security agencies. He stressed that the fight against this phenomenon is a shared responsibility for the security and well-being of both nations, as the Government of our country has also expressed on multiple occasions, and that bilateral Mexico-USA cooperation has resulted, in the present year, in 655 cases of investigation and 463 arrests, in the territory of the American Union, of people involved in these crimes.
Ambassador Salazar also shared the results of the eTrace system scans with state and federal partners, as well as eTrace use protocols and best practices with the FGR. It should be noted that e-Trace is an internet application that tracks the purchase and use history of firearms used in violent crimes. In that sense, he stated, Mexican authorities sent almost 12,000 traces to the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the first half of fiscal year 2023, and more than a third were traced to a buyer. .
However, not only do these results and initiatives exist that involve the joint work of both countries, such as the aforementioned eTrace, but they also highlight Operation North to South, whose number of investigations into firearms trafficking to Mexico increased by 40 percent, and the number of weapons seized in those investigations increased by 11 percent. It should be remembered that Operation North to South is focused on disrupting firearms trafficking from the United States to Mexico.
On the other hand, Operation Last Mile, which targeted associated operatives and distributors affiliated with the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels from May 1, 2022 to May 1, 2023, included more than 1,436 investigations, 3,337 arrests and the seizure of 8,496 firearms.
For its part, and according to the Government of Mexico, from December 2018 to April 2023, 39,782 firearms were seized, while on average around 10,000 of these devices are seized each year.
Without a doubt, the fight against this phenomenon is not easy, but joint efforts to combat arms trafficking are yielding greater and better results. Both the governments of President López Obrador and President Joe Biden see this challenge as an issue that requires bilateral collaboration. They are dedicated to this and in this they have our full support.
ricardomonreala@yahoo.com.mx
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