US Tackling Illegal Gun Exports to Mexico on Multiple Fronts, Official Says
The U.S. government is taking several steps to curb the transfer of U.S. firearms to drug cartels and other violent groups in Mexico, a State Department official told a congressional panel last week.
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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has expanded its internet-based eTrace system to 25 of Mexico’s 32 states to help them trace the origin of U.S.-made firearms recovered in criminal investigations, said Chris Landberg, senior official in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). "We continue to talk to the other seven," he added.
Other activities include CBP “stepping up its efforts to try to control the flow of the guns going south” and INL working with ATF to set up a specialized unit to focus on illegal transfers of guns to Mexico, Landberg testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
“This has been a priority for all of us,” Landberg said. “We see this as a direct U.S. national security issue. These guns are going right to the cartels and increasing their lethality and threatening not just Mexican security forces but U.S. citizens in Mexico.”
Landberg’s comments came a day after congressional Democrats reintroduced a bill Dec. 16 that would transfer authority over small arms exports from the Commerce Department back to the State Department (see 2312080066). Supporters of the proposed Americas Regional Monitoring of Arms Sales Act, or Armas Act, say State is better equipped than Commerce to stem the flow of U.S. firearms to bad actors in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The legislation also would require the development of an interagency strategy to track and verify the use of exported firearms. Congressional oversight of export licensing would be increased. Led by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, the Armas Act was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In other testimony before the House subcommittee, Landberg said Mexican banking authorities recently closed three financial institutions that the Treasury Department designated as primary money-laundering concerns for their ties to illegal opioid trafficking (see 2506260014).