Mexican officials said about 80% of the weapons recovered at crime scenes were purchased in the United States and smuggled across the border.
From cartel assassin to cartel leader, that’s “El Mencho”
Who is “El Mencho” and how did he rise from cartel assassin to leader of Jalisco’s new generation cartel, which has global influence and violent influence?
After Mexican troops killed drug cartel kingpin Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, widely known as El Mencho, authorities have released details of the weapons recovered in the shootout. Officials said the stockpile included a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, 10 long arms, a handgun and grenades.
Mexican Defense Minister Ricardo Torrevira Trejo said that, like other crime scenes in Mexico, about 80% of the weapons recovered were purchased in the United States and smuggled across the border. Details were revealed at a press conference on February 23, the day after El Mencho’s murder.
Gun ownership is severely restricted in Mexico. Mexico City, where weapons sales are strictly regulated, has only one military-run gun store in the country. But the easy availability of guns in the United States has created a “river of iron” flooding the Mexican black market with firearms.
“Our gun laws and gun industry practices are fueling an iron river of gun trafficking that feeds the Mexican drug cartels and other criminal organizations in our region,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a 2025 news release announcing legislation he hopes will curb gun smuggling.
American-made gun at crime scene in Mexico
Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives largely confirm Mexico’s numbers that the majority of its weapons come from the United States. Countries around the world are asking the ATF to trace weapons found at crime scenes. ATF said 74% of guns used in crimes from 2017 to 2021 were associated with a U.S. purchaser.
The details behind gun-tracing data are hidden from public view by a Congressional rule known as the Tierhardt Amendment, passed in 2003 to shield gun dealers from scrutiny. Each year, the ATF provides a simple count of U.S.-purchased guns recovered in Mexico.
However, a major leak of Mexican military information in 2024 revealed tracking data showing where and how firearms sold by the United States were purchased.
Mexican authorities are particularly concerned about large stores near the border in Arizona and Texas, such as Academy Sports & Outdoors and Cabela’s, because they often sell multiple rifles in a single transaction. Academy, for example, sold 727 of the guns recovered in Mexico between 2020 and 2022, and Cabela’s sold 215 over the same period, according to court records.
Traffic of ants and southward flow of weapons
It is illegal to smuggle legally purchased firearms out of the United States.
In one recent indictment, the Justice Department charged a father and son duo with attempting to drive more than 300 rifles and pistols, as well as ammunition and magazines, across the Mexican border. The gun was wrapped in plastic and hidden behind a false wall in a utility trailer.
“Stopping the illegal flow of weapons into Mexico is a critical part of our whole-of-government approach to dismantling cartels,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a news release at the time.
In early February, the ATF announced it had seized 4,359 firearms and 648,975 rounds of ammunition bound for Mexico since January 2025, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle networks that provide weapons to violent criminals.
The southward flow of arms and cash from the United States to Mexico has historically been difficult to combat, in part because smugglers travel by what the Mexican government calls transportation. ant traffickinglike ants crossing borders, smuggling small quantities at a time.
The Mexican National Guard conducts random inspections of vehicles at ports of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection may inspect southbound vehicles before they enter Mexico.
Mexico has long maintained that U.S. firearms are responsible for thousands of deaths in the country each year. In 2021, the Mexican government sued a U.S. gun manufacturer for “aiding and abetting” gun trafficking south of the border.
In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the Mexican government’s efforts to hold U.S. gun manufacturers accountable for violence and brutality committed by Mexican drug cartels.
