A Las Vegas man who engaged in an armed standoff with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Lukeville, Arizona in 2019 was found guilty of impeding and threatening federal officers, and smuggling firearms and ammunition into Mexico. John Milton Lee, 62, planned to drive weapons to Guatemala, but was turned back by Mexican authorities. ... Read more»
A 25-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday by a federal judge in Tucson after he pleaded guilty to straw-purchasing dozens of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition and smuggling them into Mexico, as well as trafficking fentanyl into the U.S.
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A U.S. citizen was arrested last week after Nogales-area U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 13,000 rounds of ammunition meant for assault rifles, along with 16 magazines, stashed in his pickup.
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In an effort to reduce gun smuggling, the Mexican government is suing a group of gun manufacturers — including Glock, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and Colt’s Manufacturing — in the United States, and the first hearing was held last week in Boston. ... Read more»
The proposed "U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities," which, like the Mérida Initiative before, approaches the problems of drug trafficking, violence, and abuse on the basis of the countries’ "shared responsibility" for the problems.
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A driver for the U.S. consulate in Nogales, Sonora, was sentenced Monday to nearly four years in prison for attempting to smuggle more than a dozen firearms into Mexico last year, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle. ... Read more»
The Mexican government filed a lawsuit Wednesday against seven U.S. gun manufacturers, arguing that the companies are responsible for a "deadly flood" of weapons that invariably "wreak havoc in Mexican society."
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Border Patrol agents seized an AR-15 rifle and arrested five men Wednesday, including two U.S. citizens, in the desert 100 miles west of Tucson, authorities said. ... Read more»
A former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency pleaded guilty in Tucson's federal court on Tuesday to illegally selling firearms without a license. ... Read more»
Three men and a cache of semi-automatic rifles were intercepted by Border Patrol agents on Saturday afternoon southwest of Ajo, Ariz. ... Read more»
A Tucson man was sentenced last week to 78 months in federal prison for his role in a gun-running operation that included a former Tucson police officer. Timothy Veninga, holder of a Federal Firearms License, worked to send at least 31 guns to Mexican drug cartels, officials said.... Read more»
Nogales-area customs officers arrested a U.S. citizen Tuesday after they found a small arsenal stashed in his vehicle, including five semi-automatic rifles, two handguns, and more than 800 rounds of ammunition. ... Read more»
A Border Patrol agent was found guilty of stealing more than $100,000 in gun parts from a federal armory in West Virginia, including a device that modified a Glock pistol into a fully automatic weapon, and mailing them to Arizona. ... Read more»1
A Tucson man was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison Thursday for stealing the identities of two people he had contact with in his work as a police officer, and using their names to illegally purchase firearms — including one intercepted at the border and a .50-caliber rifle seized in Mexico.... Read more»
A federal investigation led to the arrest of a Mexican man in Nogales, Arizona, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 7,000 rounds of ammunition into Mexico on Saturday. ... Read more»
A Nogales-area man was sentenced to 92 months in prison for attempting to smuggle 5,517 rounds of ammunition through the Nogales border crossing last year. During the attempt, a spare tire stuffed with the ammo fell from his truck about 75 yards from the port. The man tried to recover the tire, but gave up and drove into Mexico. It was later recovered by border officers, who discovered the cache.... Read more»
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