Authorities say Mexican cartel bought, stored guns in Texas

Source: MCT News Service

The guns were purchased at Metroplex gun shops with money raised from the sale of methamphetamine smuggled from Mexico to Dallas, court documents state. One person shipped 30 to 50 weapons a week across the border.

"Gun smuggling is not just a border problem," said Tom Crowley, a spokesman for the Dallas-Fort Worth ATF office. "They have comfort zones elsewhere where they operate that extend far from the border."

A Fort Worth gun store owner brought the suspects to authorities' attention. In September 2008, the store owner notified a local ATF task force officer about two men and a woman who had purchased 20 AK-47 rifles at his store. A few days later, the woman returned to the store and bought six more rifles.

The gun store owner found the purchases "extremely suspicious," court papers state.

During an investigation, agents developed a confidential informant who told them about one man who recruited family members and their friends to buy weapons for him. Those who bought them were paid $50 extra for each gun purchased.


Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-200910272127mctnewsservbc-drugcartel-guns-ft39,0,5019754.story

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The violance in Mexico has been a big business for the US gun cartels

n/t

They will do anything to keep from actually addressing the points in the article...

without guns and the paranoia about their lives, they would be giant blobs of protoplasm, finding anything to latch onto, like maybe denying food stampers soda.......

As the sole income earner and bill payer, I'm left too poor to do anything except surf the internet for fun and I see staggering amounts of point-counter point finger pointing going on, much to my amusement. Sometimes I succumb to temptation and throw something out there.

In truth, I'm a hybrid driving, latte' swilling 57 year old man who still hopes for a bright future for America.

The things I find disturbing in America is how we need trillions of dollars to solve problems most countries can deal with using a little common sense.

People who committed serious crimes were arrested and are facing charges.

This is a Good News story. The good guys one, the bad guys lost.

:hi:

Now you tell me even that has been the furriners?

That's kind of a sign that you're too crazy even for fellow gun nuts.

other wise it is another patriot buying a gun

Of course, I was born and raised in Southern AZ, so "white" and "brown" may mean different things to me than others.... and a lot of the people in the shadier side of things "look" white, but are spanish speaking scotsmen, blue-eyed-blonds born and raised in Mexico, etc.

Point being that "Mexican=Brown" is a bit of a racist stereotype.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

If you want to talk demographics:


"Brown" isn't an ethnic group, or an accurate classificaiton. It most commonly appears in reference to people in racist literature.

It's a steaming heap of something.

"Probably 95% of Mexicans are brown." is like saying "Probably 95% of the US are white."

It really comes down to how one defines white (in the US), or brown (in Mexico).

Without getting too far into the (fairly convoluted) racial politics of the Americas, I'll just say that it's incredibly complex, and that mestizo folks (with both European and Indigenous ancestors) make for the best example. Are they "white" or "brown"?

In my grandfather's case, the son of Polish immigrants, when he lived in New York, he was "white". However, when he moved to Tucson, AZ, he was "brown"... Golfing once a week in Tucson makes for one heck of a tan. When I moved from Tucson, AZ to Atlanta, GA, I used to get asked what country I was from, because I was so "brown". As far as I know, I have less than 1/64th (if that, as it's a family rumour) of US indigenous cultural genetics in my background, and yet, different people from different places want to pigeonhole me as "white" or "brown".

That being said, intellectually, this debate is as stupid as arguing whether or not Obama is "black". Simply lending credence to the argument, by taking the view that such racial divisions are valid (as compared to cultural divisions), only helps advance "teh stupid".

glad he called the cops but why did it take an additional purchase to make the call? Is Texas that loony?

most likely these guys where suspicious to him because they were Mexicans and he did good but many others are buying guns because they are afraid of the president and he probably won't see it as a danger for democracy in the US.

:eyes:

That dealer should get a medal.

just wonder how many people have been murder with the guns this dealer sales.

I own firearms that I bought just because I find them interesting, and some that I bought as financial investments. I even own one simply for sentimental value because it is one of the few things I have that belonged to my father.

I'm considering buying a semiautomatic AK variant just to piss off people who want to ban them.

I think you suffer from a lack of imagination, AC.

some are more worry about the lives those guns destroy other worry about their financial investments.

Concern about the potential for theft and subsequent criminal misuse, and the desire to preserve an important component of my retirement savings, were both important factors in my decision to buy the 50 cubic foot safe in which I now store most of my collection. It also looks cool in the corner of my office.

I'd like to see some kind of tax incentive offered to gun owners to give them one more reason to do the right thing.

But if you insist on seeing racism everywhere, I'm sure you can find it.

Same person sees a doctor without providing proof of legal residency? Major problem.

This is the Republican party.

HTH

Would they have been caught if the shop owner hadn't called in his suspicions after the second purchase of an additional six rifles? I conclude that they would not have been apprehended. They bought 20 rifles without the owner turning a hair, apparently. It was only when they dipped from the same well a second time that the shop owner made his call to the authorities. I also have to wonder if the buyers had waited a little longer between purchases if the owner would have even remembered them.

The current system would appear to have some problems if it depends on gun store owners placing adherence to the law above their own profits. It doesn't seem to work too well in the financial sector (viz., Goldman Sachs, AIG, et al), and I would posit that gun store owners are subject to the same temptations as Wall Street wheeler dealers.

In the real world, criminal suspects were apprehended, arrested, and are facing charges.

The current system would appear to have some problems if it depends on gun store owners placing adherence to the law above their own profits.

It's not that simple. Gun store owners want to stay in business and out of jail. Failing to report suspicious activity can cost them their businesses and their freedom.

When the gang went in and bought 20 rifles, the shop owner sold them and pocketed a good day's sales. It was only when the woman went back for six more rifles that the owner decided it was a good idea to contact the authorities. The article itself says that gangs that rotate their buyers are pretty much proof against running into any problems at all. And I sure as the world don't hear any stories at all about gun shop owners running afoul of the law for failing to report suspicious activity. I'd be interested in any compendium of such incidents that you're aware of, and what it takes for a gun dealer to finally lose "their businesses and their freedom."

You report activity when you yourself become suspicious of it.

The dealer may have a different threshold for suspicious activity than you do. Maybe you would have called the BATFE after the sale of 20 rifles. That doesn't mean the dealer in question did anything wrong, and you have no concrete basis for questioning his or her motives or attitudes. (I don't claim to know that person's motivations either. It's possible the dealer became suspicious that he or she might be the target of a sting operation, and made the report as a CYA. Maybe he or she delayed making the report for fear of being tarred as a racist, as has happened in this thread.)

And I sure as the world don't hear any stories at all about gun shop owners running afoul of the law for failing to report suspicious activity.

That's because they get arrested for aiding and abetting straw purchases, which is a crime. Failing to report suspicious activity violates the conditions of having a Federal Firearms License and is grounds for having a license revoked, but it is not a crime.

I didn't see that.

cite?

Good news! The system actually works.

:kick:

K&R

#Weeds #tunnel #gun_smuggling