Houston: A Drug Smuggler’s Paradise

Say you’re in the drug trafficking business and are looking to unload a little of you hard-earned cash on a weapon that can blast through a van. Well, you would very likely pay a visit to Houston, Texas, where a veritable buffet of weapons are available for purchase, for the right price.

In Mexico, gun permits are pricey and difficult to obtain and you can’t (usually) just up and buy an UZI without one. Just across the border, however, guns can usually be found more easily and for less money. Frighteningly, some drug gangs, like the Zetas, are armed with enough weaponry to take on the Mexican army. Guns purchased in American towns close to the border have been used in violent attacks in both the U.S. and Mexico. One man,  John Phillip Hernandez, was implicated in killing four officers and three secretaries in Acapulco, Mexico with a gun purchased in Houston. Some of the guns purchased have earned the nickname “cop killers” for their ability to rip through police officers’ bullet proof vests.

Not only is Houston an ideal place for drug cartels to purchase guns because it is a large city relatively close to Mexico, but many drug traffickers stop in the city anyway to deliver drugs and, at times, illegal immigrants. So purchasing guns in Houston makes logistical sense, like killing two birds with one AK-47 assault rifle.

The NRA, for their part, claim most of the guns purchased by these cartels were done so through the international arms market and the Mexican army itself, and that reported sales of fun purchases made by them in the U.S. have been exaggerated. Which, uh. Is totally helpful.

Mexico cartels go bargain gun shopping in Houston [Reuters]