In a country with just a single legal gun shop, on a military base in the capital, roughly 2.5 million illicit American guns have poured across the border in the past decade, according to a new Mexican government study. Naval Infantry The ... Light anti-tank weapons; RPG-75: Anti-tank weapon: 68mm B300: Anti-tank weapon: 82mm Aircraft inventory. Empty bullet casings from a .50 calibre machine gun are seen in a 2007 photo from Baghdad, Iraq. One Marine was also injured. It features air conditioning, and possibly fire-proof insulation. Amphibious assault: To execute amphibious operations as part of a Naval Force. [7][8] Due to its actions, the navy and in kind the Naval Infantry Force has risen in stature in the United States. Last year, the weapon was used in an ambush in Michoacán that killed 14 state police officers. Kevin Sieff has been The Washington Post’s Latin America correspondent since 2018. The Mexican Naval Infantry urban digital pattern incorporates black, grey and blue on an off-white background. In service. That’s just over 0.1 percent of the estimated guns trafficked each year, roughly 250,000. Two Amphibious Reaction Forces—deployed along the country's coastline, comprising two Amphibious Infantry Battalions, Artillery Battalions, Amphibious Commando Battalions, Boat and Vehicle Battalions and Amphibious and Services Battalions. Mexican Marines are guarding the vehicle. 11mm Cartucho para Remington - as the .43 Spanish is known in Latin … Weapons are smuggled south the same way narcotics are moved north: hidden in secret vehicle compartments and sometimes broken into parts for reassembly on arrival. 25mm shells, a 40mm grenade, and some AP .50cal rounds were also reportedly found inside! The Marine Parachute Battalion is an elite force, which is the strategic reserve of the high command of the Mexican Navy for high impact operations and emergency. Graphics editing by Armand Emamdjomeh and Tim Meko. The Naval Infantry Corps was reorganized in 2007–2009 into 30 Naval Infantry Battalions (Batallones de Infantería de Marina—BIM), a paratroop battalion, a battalion attached to the Presidential Guard Brigade, two Fast Reaction Forces with six battalions each, and three Special Forces groups. In addition to being waved at official ceremonies, the Corps Standard (Estandarte) is present in all parades wherein the Corps takes part as a constituent branch of the navy proper. Critics are arguing that the DEA is going around Mexican police because the U.S. is concerned about corruption in the police forces. [Mexican Marines (SEMAR). The day after the man was found with the boxes of ammunition in Nogales, Santana went to inspect the U.S. side of the border. Modernized Mexican Army M8 Greyhound. Among the weapons purchased by the Mexican army during this period were numbers of Spanish pattern M1870 Remington, Whitney Type II Rolling Block and Peabody rifles chambered for the .43 Spanish cartridge. Mexican officials, in rare public criticism, are now venting their frustration at what they say is the U.S. failure to stop the flow of .50-caliber rifles. The two biggest sources, ATF officials say, are Arizona and Texas. According to the task, units are integrated to meet requirements identified in a variety of operational environments; their capacity to be transported by air, sea and land are organic to the unit. Therefore, the flexibility of its organizational units can integrate in different areas of operations such as amphibious combat, urban operations in the jungle, night airborne assault, and vertical river of interdiction raids, in addition to other civic action operations and support to other units when ordered. In August alone, agents at the port of entry seized more than four times the ammunition confiscated in all of 2019. “We can’t tell what they’re getting ready for, but they’re arming up,” Gim said. “They know when to cross.". Crew cab pick up installed with handle bars and turret to install M2 Browning MG, Crew cab pick up installed with handle bars. Operational control of the NIF falls under the responsibility of the Secretary of the Navy. and a rifleman with a standard M16A2. There was a .50-caliber rifle in the back seat. In a conference room next to the border crossing between Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, local Mexican customs chief Juan Gim Nogales was giving a presentation on the rise of arms trafficking. Mexican officials say at least one .50-caliber rifle from the United States was used in the ambush. Houses are seen on the Mexican side of the US/Mexico border fence on April 6, 2018, in Jacumba, California. During the course of the operation marines received gunfire from the suspects and returned fire which led to his capture. U.S. citizens caught in Mexico trafficking guns face a maximum sentence of two years — and often serve only a few months. He wrote of the shock of attending a gun show in Texas, watching children play around assault rifles: “Wow, a normal Sunday with the family.”. Last year, a couple was caught trafficking .50-calibers on behalf of their Tucson heroin dealer. Then word came through: A man had just been stopped by agents with boxes of ammo in his back seat. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images) … U.S. lawmakers have introduced multiple anti-trafficking bills in Congress, but none of them has passed, largely because of the strength of the gun lobby. Mexico lost more than half its territory to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War -- just one on a long list of grievances. Nick Miroff covers immigration enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for The Washington Post. The cartels are using trafficked weapons to kill record numbers of police officers — 464 in the first nine months of 2020 alone — and smaller armed groups are fueling historically high homicide rates. Enthusiasts make online videos showing people using them to obliterate game and take down trees. More than 67,000 of the 96,036 firearms recovered in Mexico between 2013 and 2018, the last year for which trace data is available, were found to have come from the United States. The Mexican marines have carried out several very high profile (and successful raids), beginning in 2009. The groups that dominate smuggling along the Pacific Coast, including the Sinaloa cartel, shop for guns in Arizona. “Over the last eight months, there’s been a real sea change in terms of the effort being made on this,” said a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. At another, agents conducted quick, superficial inspections of 1 in 20 cars. [9], Drug interdiction at sea is also part of the Navy's strategy to combat drug trafficking, this came to light when, on July 16, 2008, the navy intercepted a 10-metre-long (33 ft) narco submarine travelling about 200 kilometres (120 mi) off the southwest of the state of Oaxaca; in a raid, Navy Special Forces rappelled from a helicopter on to the deck of the narco submarine and arrested four smugglers before they could scuttle their vessel. It should be noted that the Mexican marines have been active in this role for some time already. 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