U.S.: Gun raids show cartels at work in Arizona

[liberal N proud]

Weak laws let ‘straw buyers’ amass hundreds of assault rifles, federal officials say

Federal officials say they have new evidence that Mexico's most violent drug cartels are exploiting weak U.S. guns laws to acquire massive quantities of assault rifles and other firearms for use in their war against the Mexican government.

In an early morning round-up in Arizona, law enforcement agents Tuesday arrested 20 people who are accused of illegally buying hundreds of AK-47s and other firearms at U.S. gun stores. The defendants allegedly acted as "straw purchasers," falsely declaring on federal forms they were purchasing the weapons for themselves, rather than their real clients: the Sinaloa Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking organizations across the border, the officials said.

"The massive size of this operation exemplifies the magnitude of the problem — Mexican drug lords go shopping for war weapons in Arizona," said Dennis K. Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, who announced the raids at a press conference in Phoenix.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41257218/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

[Maine_Nurse]

1. I have an honest question...

I'm not disputing this or anything like that. I just don't understand the scumbags doing this. Seriously, unless things have changed drastically in the past decade, it really isn't that hard to buy full auto weapons (real assault rifles and machine guns), grenades, etc on the black market in some places in South and Central America. Heck, with what they are spending, there are arms merchants that would sell them upper-end full auto weaponry and deliver to Mexico (WaPo reported customs bribes of $1 million to smuggle large shipments to Mexico from the US). It just doesn't make sense to me for them to spend that kind of money for semi-auto versions of the real thing. Has Mexico actually managed to tighten their maritime, air, and southern land borders that much that it is cheaper and easier to get lower value items from the US?

Anyone understand this?

Thanks

[RSillsbee]

2. I'm sorry but I don't buy it

They can get the real thing from Central and South America or even China. Buy semi auto fakes in Arizona?

[rl6214]

3. They may be making straw purchases but

They aren't buying assault rifles, they are buying semi-automatic copies of the real assault rifles.

Big difference.

[Maine_Nurse]

4. I even saw one news report...

that skipped the false "assault rifle" label and declared that the Mexican cartels were buying hundreds of machine guns to smuggle across the border. Yeah, right. I think a legal full auto M60 runs $30k and up. I doubt ATF gave them the needed stamps and nobody selling NFA weaponry is gonna dump one to an illegal purchaser.

I really am curious about the question I asked though. Some of the news agencies say that, on top of the price of the weapon, it costs the scum about $10k per unit to get them smuggled across the border. That much money would buy 3-5 of the real thing black market dealers in other countries, let alone countries themselves that would be willing to supply. I just don't get it.