Phoenix’s branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Friday it took 18 automatic weapons bound for Mexico off Arizona streets before they got south of the border. The guns were heading to drug cartels in Mexico from the U.S., said William Newell, special agent in charge, ATF, Phoenix field division. Newell said agents found five of them strapped underneath a truck heading for the border two weeks ago. Then they found 13 more two days later. Agents said a women made a straw purchase of 13 in Phoenix, meaning she lied, saying the guns were ….Read More
03/06/2008
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Mexican police fighting the drug cartels face an enemy that is better funded, better equipped and better armed. The inequality was never more evident than earlier this year, when several unarmed Juárez police officers were fatally shot on their way home from work. The off-duty officers had no weapons to defend themselves because they had to share handguns with other officers. Their deaths are among an estimated 400 homicides in Juárez this year as drug-trafficking gangs battle for control of the region’s lucrative smuggling corridor. Many of the deadly shootings were what some described as “Juárez-style,” in which cars are ….Read More
