Police discover hidden arsenal in Ciudad Juarez

Source: AP

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Mexican federal police said Saturday they discovered a basement arsenal hidden behind the mirrors of a home gym that included three anti-aircraft guns, dozens of grenades, a grenade launcher, AK-47s and other high-powered weapons.

The neatly ordered stockpile found in an upscale neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, also contained several makes of machine guns, rifles, a shotgun and more than 26,000 ammunition cartridges, according to Raul Avila Ibarra, the federal police commissioner in charge of the city.

Police say they discovered the weapons Friday while searching a house near the U.S.-Mexico border. Avila said the police acted on an anonymous tip that there were kidnapping victims in the house, but no one was found.

The mirrors of the gym opened at the touch of a button near the floor, allowing access to the secret shelter, which also held more than 50 military uniforms, as well as bulletproof vests and gas masks. Three money-counting machines were also found.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYrc7I0hrTO7nezVQncThbe7EK4A?docId=f0e4a75aa05e4e89bf86a3cfe9c70aa9

Mexico! The surf, the sand, the...severed heads.

This story could be spun so many ways, what a treasure trove:

More gun control, they're gonna kill us!

Less gun control, they're gonna kill us!

It's just Mexico, forget about it!

It's just Texas, forget about it!

Open the border, send our troops to put down the terrorists before they can cross the border!

Seal the border, put killer drones to stop them climbing the fence, or drop daisycutters to keep them from tunneling into our country!

It's the ATF's fault!

It's Chavez' fault!

And of course, we all know the classic:

It's all Obama's fault!

:hi:

unless our government supplied them to Mexico or to governments in Central America or South America.

guns in the air, and they were wearing all this racist and nazi gear, and once they knew you were 'cool' they would totally sell you antiaircraft missiles, and machine guns, and anything you wanted out of the back of a truck. No grenades though, I had to buy those at WalMart.

Don't ask where this was 'cause I can't remember, but it totally happened. You should just take my word for it. Also, the NRA totally sucks.

and I agree the NRA totally sucks

yup

:rofl:

by the way, so don't be thinking you got away with it (although the way you squealed when she started chasing you was pretty funny)...

Don't ever change, eh?

now are from south america and from our own mexican armies. They have full automatic rifles, grenadas, rocket launchers. We need to be more efficient on the southern border to guatamala.

It must be hell now.

Take it from someone who's been to rural India. Juarez a few years ago was fairly decent compared to some areas I've visited. Of course now it's a complete shithole and no one here will visit it

not poverty.

Went to Juarez quite often. It used to be a great place to shop. And for many of the soldiers from Ft Bliss, the place to party. Juarez was a border town then, but it has become a real nightmare for its citizens today.

The black market drug demand in the US is responsible for this mess. It's time to end prohibition.

I was there in about 2005.
While there I ran across a cemetery that I found very serene.
Most head stones were white or blue against the brown of the earth, I found it very spiritual

If the USofA stops stonewalling efforts to achieve an arms trade treaty ...


http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/ArmsTradeTreaty/html/ATT-more.shtml

No global norms
Important areas of world trade are covered by rules that bind countries into agreed conduct. But they are not bound by rules when transfering weapons. An eclectic set of national and regional control measures on arms transfers exists, but the absence of such an international framework has unnecessarily obscured transparency and trust.

Can we hope for change?

http://www.state.gov/t/us/136849.htm
(no copyright issue)

Remarks
Ellen Tauscher
Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security
Carnegie Endowment For International Peace
Washington, DC
February 18, 2010

... That is why we need to explore a legally binding measure to better control transfers across international borders.

For the Arms Trade Treaty to be effective at thwarting irresponsible transfers, it must ensure that members effectively implement national laws that criminalize such transfers and allow for the monitoring of commerce. Without this, it won’t necessarily deter or stop terrorism.

So-called “legally-binding instruments” are absolutely meaningless to such terrorists. They are criminals who don’t and won’t abide by any reasonable agreements.

This means that the most only effective way to inhibit their activity is indirectly.

All states must recognize the obligation to enact and enforce laws within their territory that criminalize, isolate, and punish those terrorist groups operating within their territory or profiting from transactions that originate in or transit through their territory.

And, if the state claiming sovereign jurisdiction does not have the capability for such enforcement, then the international community must make available the resources to create such capability, both in the short and long run.

This means that any international instrument hoping to make real impact on “illicit” arms transfers must focus on requiring each party to put in place those necessary means to eliminate such rogue non-state actors both from within their territory and on the receiving end of their international commerce.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=abkyS4.975YM

U.S. Backs Arms Trade Treaty at UN, Abandoning Bush Opposition
By Bill Varner - October 30, 2009 13:46 EDT

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration voted today to support United Nations-sponsored talks on a treaty to regulate the $55 billion-a-year trade in conventional weapons, reversing prior U.S. opposition to negotiations begun in 2006.

The General Assembly, consisting of all 192 UN member governments, adopted a resolution setting out a timetable for talks during the next two years on the proposed Arms Trade Treaty, including a UN conference to produce a final accord in 2012. The vote was 153-1, with 19 abstentions.

“This is massive in its impact because the U.S. is the largest conventional arms trader in the world,” Brian Wood, disarmament expert for London-based Amnesty International, said in an interview. “The Obama administration has decided to enter into the negotiations and do the diplomatic heavy lifting.”

The U.S. trade in conventional weapons amounts to 40 percent of the global total, according to Wood. The resolution says the unregulated trade in conventional arms “can fuel instability, transnational organized crime and terrorism.”