HOUSTON (Reuters) - Mexican drug gangs looking for weapons powerful enough to stop a vehicle, penetrate a bullet-resistant vest or confront an army detachment need look no further than the Houston area's 1,500 gun shops, where merchandise is priced to move.
Guns like the Barrett M-82 sniper rifle, the AK-47 and Bushmaster .223 are among those favored by cartel hitmen that slaughtered some 6,300 people in Mexico border cities like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana last year.
In Mexico, gun sales are regulated by the government and require citizens to apply for permits, which are rare and expensive. But deadly weapons are in ready supply at a substantial discount for those Mexicans willing to drive 350 miles from the border.
"They can do the math," said Dewey Webb, Special Agent in Charge of the Houston field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "They can come a few hundred miles north and get a lot better price on it."
For example, the Belgian-made FN 5.7-caliber pistol is known to gangs as a "cop killer" because it can fire a round through a Kevlar bullet-resistant vest. It goes for $800 in the Houston area, compared to $1,500 in a border store, Webb said.
The Mexico border violence is starting to spill into the United States. In Tucson, Arizona, a two hour's drive from the border, residents have seen a rash of home break-ins and assaults from gangs linked to the lucrative drug trade.
Mexico cartels go bargain gun shopping in Houston | U.S. | Reuters
Guns like the Barrett M-82 sniper rifle, the AK-47 and Bushmaster .223 are among those favored by cartel hitmen that slaughtered some 6,300 people in Mexico border cities like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana last year.
In Mexico, gun sales are regulated by the government and require citizens to apply for permits, which are rare and expensive. But deadly weapons are in ready supply at a substantial discount for those Mexicans willing to drive 350 miles from the border.
"They can do the math," said Dewey Webb, Special Agent in Charge of the Houston field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "They can come a few hundred miles north and get a lot better price on it."
For example, the Belgian-made FN 5.7-caliber pistol is known to gangs as a "cop killer" because it can fire a round through a Kevlar bullet-resistant vest. It goes for $800 in the Houston area, compared to $1,500 in a border store, Webb said.
The Mexico border violence is starting to spill into the United States. In Tucson, Arizona, a two hour's drive from the border, residents have seen a rash of home break-ins and assaults from gangs linked to the lucrative drug trade.
Mexico cartels go bargain gun shopping in Houston | U.S. | Reuters
