TITLE: Mexican cartels wiped out competition in US fentanyl market: DEA
https://thehill.com/homenews/4679092-mexican-cartels-wiped-out-competition-in-us-fentanyl-market-dea/
EXCERPT: Two powerful Mexican drug cartels are not only operating fentanyl and other illicit drug markets in all 50 U.S. states, but have also successfully eliminated their drug-dealing competition using violence and other means, according to a report issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are at the heart of the deadliest drug threat that the U.S. has ever faced, the federal report said. Federal officials have reported that 200 U.S. deaths are linked to fentanyl each day and that 38,000 deaths tied to the drug were reported in the first six months of 2023 alone.
But the two transnational criminal organizations have not only infiltrated states along the U.S. southern border with drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine. They have also taken the major distribution of the dangerous substances from local drug dealers and gangs in states like Florida, Illinois and New York by manufacturing their product by the ton.
More concerning, perhaps, is that the powerful cartels have taken a foothold in unexpected places like Mississippi, Montana and Wyoming, expanding the footprint of the two criminal organizations while taking charge of how fentanyl and other drugs are distributed.
Both organizations rely on major drug wholesalers and established trafficking routes to get into major U.S. cities. They also use smaller branches of the cartels to work with local drug trafficking groups and gangs — along with social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — to get drugs into the hands of users on the streets and into schools, the DEA report says.
“The cartels are here in the United States, and not only are they here, but they’re comfortable,” Robert Almonte, a former U.S. Marshal and former El Paso Police Department narcotics detective, told NewsNation, adding he believes dealing with the cartels will only get worse for U.S. officials.
He added, “They’re feeding America’s appetite for these drugs.”
TITLE: Hacked data reveals a new nightmare for US gun industry
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/05/22/mexican-cartels-supplied-trafficked-guns-from-us/73700258007/
EXCERPT: A massive leak of Mexican military intelligence has exposed for the first time in two decades U.S. gun shops and smugglers tied to 78,000 firearms recovered south of the border – and which types of guns are being trafficked.
The nuggets of information are among roughly 10 million records hacked by an anonymous collective known as “Guacamaya” and shared with news outlets by the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecrets. The Mexican Defense Ministry leak previously made headlines for exposing military corruption and surveillance abuse, and now reveals the trace data on American-sold firearms recovered since 2018.
Despite efforts to stem the flow, these American firearms are smuggled south as part of the cycle of Latin-American narcotics headed north. The violence in Central America fueled, in part, by guns also has contributed to the migration crisis at the U.S. border.
As part of the leak, emails relaying U.S. government data between Mexican military leaders and PowerPoint presentations by Mexico’s attorney general show which American straw buyers were tied to the most weapons as of 2022.
Among them is Texan Craig Adlong. He pleaded guilty in 2020 for lying on firearm transaction forms, saying the guns were for his personal use. He purchased 95 semi-automatic rifles at Guns Unlimited in Katy, Texas, making seven visits over two months.
Sixty-six of those firearms were recovered in Mexico, according to the leak.
Reached by phone, Adlong told USA TODAY he was surprised he remained on Mexican officials' radar after serving a six-month prison sentence. He made a mistake, he said, that he has put behind him.
Asked if he worries about acts of violence being committed with guns tied to his name, he said, “Absolutely. You’d have to be an animal not to.”
TITLE: SCOTUS urged to hear Mexico's lawsuit blaming US gun makers for cartel violence
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-ags-ask-scotus-hear-mexico-lawsuit-blaming-us-gun-manufacturers-cartel-violence
EXCERPT: On Tuesday, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, along with GOP colleagues, asked the court to hear the case to stop "a foreign sovereign’s use of American courts to effectively limit the rights of American citizens."
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in 2021 by the Mexican government, alleging U.S. gun manufacturers like Smith & Wesson, Ruger and others should be liable for gun violence carried out by cartels south of the border because the companies were aware their firearms were being trafficked into the country.
Mexico's lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in Massachusetts last year, but Mexico successfully appealed its case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, with the support of California and other Democrat-led states.
Knudsen, in his petition to the high court, says "anti-gun activists" are behind the lawsuit.
"Congress has long taken a measured and carefully calibrated approach to firearms regulation. It sought to balance the public’s Second Amendment rights with the need to keep guns away from criminals. Anti-gun activists wanted more," the petition explains.
"So they turned to the judiciary. Their admitted goal: to circumvent the political branches by turning the courts into regulators via creative legal theories and tenuous chains of causation. Even better, they knew they didn’t have to win. The mere threat of a bankrupting judgment was sufficient and – if it wasn’t – enough rolls of the dice would eventually land them the outlier victory they sought," it says.
The petition explains that Congress recognized the public’s right to keep and bear arms "was all-but-meaningless if firearms manufacturers were put out of business, and further recognized the importance of the firearms industry to the military and law enforcement." Thus, the AGs argue, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was enacted in 2005.
The bipartisan PLCAA prohibits "civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others."
"You might think that would be the end of it," the AGs wrote. "But the activists are at it again, trying to cram the same creative legal theories with even more tenuous chains of causation into PLCAA’s narrow exceptions, admittedly attempting to achieve through litigation what Congress rejected. Here, the activists even had Mexico sue American gun manufacturers for crime problems resulting from Mexico’s policy choices."
Mexico has said the companies are "fully aware that their firearms were being trafficked into the country and that the companies – not a third party – knowingly violated laws applicable to the sale or marketing of firearms."
Mexico has also said that more than 500,000 guns are trafficked annually from the U.S. into Mexico, of which more than 68% are made by the eight companies it sued and that the smuggling has contributed to high rates of gun-related deaths, declining investment and economic activity, and a need for Mexico to spend more on law enforcement and public safety.
SEE ALSO: Graphics show the avalanche of guns from US to Mexico
https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/05/22/mexican-authorities-american-guns-are-favored-by-criminals/73629063007/