By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The U.S. likes to think that it contributes positively to many countries. In Mexico, that’s not always the case. ATF reports that 68,000 guns recovered by Mexican authorities between January 2007 and December 2011 were traced back to the U.S., USA Today reports. The paper reported that many weapons were recovered…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The Mexican drug cartels just aren’t selling drugs to make cash. AHN News reports that the cartels are increasingly extorting protection money from retail stores on the U.S. side of the border. Citing the DEA, the news agency reports that businesses often don’t report the extortion demands because they employe illegal…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Fed prosecutors in Chicago are denying claims that a major Mexican cartel member had struck a deal with the DEA granting him immunity and others prosecution from immunity in exchange for information, Reuters news service reported. Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the right-hand man of Sinaloa…
By Richard A. Serrano Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators probing the controversial “Fast and Furious” anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday. The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The drug cartels are using bullet-proof trucks known as “monsters”, according to CNN. CNN reports that the trucks are built on a three-axle truck bed and include such features as swiveling turrets to shoot in any direction,a reinforced steel battering ram in front to demolish vehicles and walls and a one-inch-thick…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — A controversial ATF gun-walking program apparently concerned an Arizona gun dealer, who like many others, had been encouraged by ATF to keep selling weapons to straw purchasers, all with the hopes agents would trace them to the higher levels of the Mexican drug cartels. Problem was some of those…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — President Obama is pleading ignorance about a controversial ATF operation that let gun traffickers pass on the goods so agents could track them to the higher levels of the Mexican cartels. The President, in an interview with Univision that he and Attorney Gen. Eric Holder Jr. ever authorized the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — America seems to be falling short when it comes to committing resources to battle the burgeoning problem of guns being smuggled into Mexico. The Los Angeles Times reports: “U.S. authorities in Mexico charged with stemming the flow of U.S. weapons to drug cartels have been hampered by shortfalls in…
