Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang,are heavily involved in smuggling operations between the United States and Latin America.

Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang,are heavily involved in smuggling operations between the United States and Latin America. Drugs (banned but in demand) and human beings (restricted but useful for exploitation in scut jobs and as sex slaves) are smuggled north. Cash (proceeds of drug sales) and guns (tools of drug trafficker armies) are smuggled south. It’s a natural fit. Mexico has strict gun laws. The United States is a wide open gun bazaar. Almost any nitwit can get into the gun smuggling business. But the people smuggling guns south today are not nitwits. They are highly connected, smart, and ruthlessly organized criminals.
We know from anecdotal accounts — and in my case from a few discussions with Mexican officials — the kinds of guns that the Mexican drug trafficking armies are buying in the United States for their war against democratic governance in Mexico and other Latin American countries. It is no suprise that these credit card armies are seeking precisely the kinds of military-style killing machines that U.S. gun manufacturers like Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc., Bushmaster Firearms, and Sig Sauer, and rapacious importers like Century International Arms, Inc. have been pouring into the civilian market at breakneck pace during the feckless George W. Bush administration.Matapolicia -- Cop Killer Sold Freely in U.S. Civilian Gun Market Semiautomatic assault rifles, high-capacity pistols in big calibers are the staples of the illegal trade. But most sinister are the cop-killers — the 50 caliber anti-armor sniper rifles from Barrett (seven seized in one raid this month alone in Reynosa, Mexico), and the vest-busting Fabrique Nationale (FN) “Five-SeveN” semiautomatic pistol specifically designed to defeat body armor. Oh, by the way, attention U.S. law enforcement officers: Los Zetas, renegade Mexican ex-military now providing muscle for drug traffickers have specifically armed up to outgun you if you get in their way, according to an FBI intelligence memo leaked to the US press.