Pubdate: Mon, 02 Mar 2009
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Joel Millman

U.S. GUN TRIAL ECHOES IN DRUG-TORN MEXICO

PHOENIX -- This week, an Arizona gun shop goes on trial in state 
court in what law-enforcement officials are calling a landmark case 
against gun dealers who sell weapons that end up in the hands of 
Mexican drug cartels, fueling horrific violence south of the border 
that killed more than 6,000 people last year.

X-Caliber Guns LLC, is accused of knowingly selling hundreds of 
weapons, mostly AK-47s, to buyers who were posing as fronts for 
Mexican drug gangs. The gun store's owner, 47-year-old George 
Iknadosian, has maintained his innocence in court filings.

While the U.S. has long pressed Mexico to stop the flow of illegal 
drugs such as cocaine from crossing the border heading north, Mexico 
has complained that the U.S. doesn't stop the flow of guns heading 
south. Mexican and U.S. officials estimate that more than 90% of the 
weapons used by Mexican drug cartels come from the U.S.

Consider what happened last year in the Mexican border city of 
Nogales. The chief of the Sonora state anti-drug unit, Juan Manuel 
Pavon, was murdered by cartel hit men, just hours after attending a 
U.S. seminar on how to resist the tide of American firearms surging 
into Mexico. Several weapons linked to the crime traced back to X-Caliber Guns.

"The three highest priorities for me in terms of U.S. cooperation in 
the drugs war are these: guns, guns, guns," Mexican Attorney General 
Eduardo Medina Mora said in a recent interview with The Wall Street 
Journal. "These drug groups intimidate society and government because 
of their firepower. And their firepower comes from the U.S."

No one knows how many weapons cross the border into Mexico each year. 
Unlike contraband drugs, which are consumed, contraband guns "remain 
in circulation until they are captured," says Terry Goddard, the 
Arizona Attorney General bringing the case against X-Caliber Guns.

The number of U.S. guns in Mexico is growing. The Justice 
Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or 
ATF, says more than 7,700 guns sold in America were traced to Mexico 
in the fiscal year ending last September. That's twice the 3,300 
recorded the previous year and more than triple the 2,100 traced the 
year before that.

U.S. officials acknowledge that U.S. gun laws are partly to blame. 
The 1994 ban on the sale of assault weapons like AK-47s in the U.S. 
led to a decrease of such weapons south of the border. But the ban 
expired in 2004, and the numbers in Mexico spiked. Last week, U.S. 
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration would seek 
to reinstate the ban. Contributing to the problem is the fact that 
Mexico's customs control is famously weak, and authorities rarely 
check inbound traffic from the U.S.

Meanwhile, Mexican drug gangs are stocking up on deadlier weapons. 
ATF officials say they have registered more purchases of high-powered 
FN Herstal rifles and pistols -- the Belgian-made weapon called 
"matapolicias" in Mexico, or "cop killers," for their ability to fire 
through body armor. Such items are sold in hundreds of Arizona gun 
shops, or by private owners advertising online.

Although U.S. gun laws generally forbid the sale of weapons to 
noncitizens, the X-Caliber case shows how Mexican purchasers used 
intermediaries -- or "straw buyers" -- to flout the rules.

The scheme, according to the prosecution, was simple: The buyers, 
usually 19- to 22-year-old U.S. citizens with no police record, 
declared that the firearm was for personal use, but instead passed it 
along to an associate of a Mexican cartel. The buyer filled out a 
standard form used by the ATF to track firearms. Lying on the form is 
punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But ATF agents here say 
buyers in the X-Caliber case were paid a fee to run that risk -- up 
to $100 on each transaction.

Gun shops generally rely on ATF recordkeeping to check them before 
selling to the wrong buyer. Ken Logan, a manager at the Shooters 
World gun store in Phoenix says the ATF form, once approved after 
being checked against a national data base, relieves the store of 
responsibility. "The ATF says 'yea' or 'nay,' on who I can sell a gun 
to," he says.

Gun stores run the risk of lawsuits if they're deemed to be 
"profiling" -- refusing to sell guns to young Latinos, for instance. 
Mr. Logan concedes he has seen men enter gun stores, point out to a 
girlfriend what weapon they should buy, and leave. The girlfriend 
fills out the form, attesting the firearm is for her personal use.

Getting bullets is even easier. Gun dealers here must report anyone 
purchasing more than one handgun during a single five-day period, but 
there is no restriction on ammunition. Last Christmas Eve, salesmen 
at Cabela's Sporting Goods store in Phoenix were surprised when two 
Hispanic men bought 24,000 rounds of 5.7 caliber bullets -- the same 
caliber used in FN "cop killers." They paid in cash -- more than 
$10,000. When the buyers were seen loading their purchase into a car 
with Mexican license plates, store managers summoned police. 
Authorities found 12 FN rifles and three "cop killer" handguns.

Police arrested the buyers, but only because they were foreign 
nationals, thus forbidden from possessing arms in the U.S.

The murder of Mr. Pavon last year illustrates how Arizona's 
gun-friendly culture contributes to mayhem in Mexico. Last October, 
the men under Mr. Pavon's command fought gangs of narco-pistoleros in 
gun battles across the state. On October 24, a caravan of heavily 
armed assassins descended on Nogales, only to be repelled, leaving 10 
gunmen dead. A week later, they attacked a police substation about a 
mile from the U.S. border crossing.

Days later, Mr. Pavon was in Arizona for consultations with U.S. officials.

At a farewell picnic at a federal shooting range in Tucson, the 
Mexican policeman was invited to test fire a powerful American weapon 
that has been surfacing lately in the narco-gangs' arsenals: the 50 
caliber Barrett rifle, powerful enough to pierce a tank's armor.

"We had a shootout," recalls Mr. Newell, the ATF agent. "He won."

The following night, Commander Pavon was ambushed as he entered a 
Nogales hotel.

- -Jose de Cordoba contributed to this article.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom