Smuggled gun lines from the US satisfy the ‘thirst’ of Mexican gangs

The 17-year-old boy sat in a hotel room, operating the “weapons coordination center” with just his phone. He scrolled through the list of weapons for sale on WhatsApp and handled requests like a switchboard operator, “closing orders” continuously, from AK-47 guns, AR-15 rifles to ammunition.

“The speed of business now is very dizzying,” this person said. He is the son of a local gang boss born in Arizona, USA. Although still a high school student in Phoenix, he now processes up to 200 weapons orders a week, nearly double the amount of goods pushed to Mexico before President Donald Trump returned to the White House and stepped up his campaign to crack down on gangs.

Despite increased surveillance and control measures on both sides of the border, it is extremely easy to smuggle guns into Mexico, the young man said. “No one wants to stop you unless you run a red light,” he said.

As the Trump administration urged the Mexican government to be more aggressive with drug cartels, an unexpected “beneficiary” emerged from this pressure campaign. These are arms smuggling lines for the Sinaloa cartel, the “criminal empire” that is distributing large amounts of fentanyl into US territory.

Mexican and US officials have poured billions of dollars into efforts to stop the flow of drugs, especially fentanyl smuggling into the US. However, arms trafficking gangs still quietly smuggle an unprecedented amount of guns and ammunition to Mexico.

Over the past year and a half, the need for weapons has exploded as the Sinaloa cartel had to fight on three fronts at the same time: Confronting fierce raids from the Mexican government, purging factions within itself and stockpiling to cope with the scenario of US military intervention.

The accounts of seven people involved in the lines of purchasing and transporting weapons from the US to Mexico, all of whom have connections to the Sinaloa cartel, revealed how weapons from stores and gun shows in the US were smuggled into the hands of Mexican gang members.

Thirst for weapons

On a recent afternoon, two men wearing black masks were hunched over a long table. One guy used a toothbrush to scrub the Colt pistol, scrubbing away the dirt stuck in the crevices. The other person dripped oil onto the metal and polished another pistol engraved with elaborate gold-plated patterns.

One of the two men was an arms coordinator for Mayitos, a branch of the Sinaloa cartel that swore allegiance to leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García. A longtime close associate of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, El Mayo was kidnapped by one of El Chapo’s sons in 2024 and turned over to American authorities. This act of betrayal caused shock and pushed the Sinaloa cartel into a bloody civil war.

For nearly a decade, the weapons coordinator’s job has been to ensure the organization’s guns are in perfect working order. He receives, cleans, manipulates and redistributes to subordinates and leaders of smaller groups within the gang.

Weapon shipments used to only arrive occasionally, but now they arrive every few weeks, hundreds of guns at a time, he said.

Just seven days ago, this person said he and his partner drove to a remote airstrip south of the city of Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa state, to unload nearly 1,500 guns from a plane.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexico mobilized thousands of National Guard and army soldiers to Sinaloa state, and increased checkpoints on highways across the country, making the transportation of smuggled weapons by road more dangerous.

As a result, the coordinator said his network began shifting to air travel, increasing the use of private planes and airstrips that have long been popular locations for drug transport.

Due to running out of cash after months of fighting and a decline in drug production, his division was forced to adapt. Members are so “thirsty” for guns that many have begun bringing fentanyl in exchange for weapons directly with one of the main suppliers in the US: the notorious California street gang known as the “Mexican Mafia”.

“All profits earned are spent on salaries, food, vehicles for combat and bribes to officials,” the coordinator revealed. “Their main target right now is guns, not drugs.”

Tight machine

Mexican gangs have built their arms trafficking network into a machine of discipline and clear separation. The leaders send orders to a small group of “specialists” in Mexico, whose sole mission is to arm the cartel.

This network then expanded into the United States, where a network of coordinators and their deputies ran smuggling groups operating separately across a series of different states. American investigators said that when a link in the chain is revealed, the clue is broken and cannot lead anywhere else.

U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are eligible to legally purchase firearms are paid to collect firearms from dealers or gun shows for the network. They often have little idea of ​​the true scale of the network they are helping. Each buyer takes on one simple task: Walk in, buy the gun, then hand it over.

This way of operating makes the line difficult to break. US investigators and security experts say that gun smuggling activities are growing faster, more difficult to destroy and are deeply rooted in the US mainland.

But recently, crackdowns have stepped up in states like Arizona, forcing smugglers to improve their methods of operation.

Two smugglers in Phoenix said they are now turning to bribing employees, managers and owners of gun stores. According to them, some people inflated prices to make up the difference, received 10% kickbacks, falsified records and reused information of old customers to cover up illegal transactions.

The guns were then gathered in “safe houses”, often disassembled for easy concealment, and then shipped south.

The two smugglers say they rely on Arizona’s deep-rooted gun culture and lax laws to collect weapons. They take advantage of chat groups on WhatsApp and closed groups on Facebook, operating like a “digital supermarket”.

These networks include only trusted contacts. To avoid being exposed, the leader regularly deletes old chats and creates new groups, ensuring that only people who have passed censorship have access.

“People in Phoenix are crazy about guns,” the 17-year-old smuggler said as he opened a group on the WhatsApp application specializing in weapons advertising and stopped at a photo of three rifles placed on a mattress, next to a baseball cap.

“We would look at posts like that and click our tongues: ‘Ah, this gun would be delicious if smuggled south,'” he said.

A 40-year-old smuggler said that over the past 10 years he has been purchasing weapons in the US and then smuggling them to Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by El Chapo’s son.

He said he was introduced to the profession by an uncle. The day he leaves, his son will take over the job. That’s how this profession works: It’s passed from father to son.

The war between factions within the Sinaloa cartel has caused demand for what he calls “iron goods” to skyrocket, with orders pouring in more and more quickly and in larger quantities.

The arms smuggler worked with suppliers in the US, including an American citizen he had known for 12 years. This person is responsible for purchasing guns, from old used guns to brand new military-grade weapons.

Lately, he’s been moving about 240 guns a month across the border, double the amount from a year ago. According to him, the AK-47 gun, a weapon widely used by armies, rebel groups and paramilitary forces around the world, is an item that everyone covets. Barrett sniper rifles are also attracting customers because of their ability to penetrate vehicle tires and fortified positions.

Bribery is a vital factor, the smuggler affirmed. His American accomplices were responsible for paying officials here, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and other units, to ensure that shipments crossed the border without interference.

When asked about allegations of agents taking bribes, CBP claimed its agents and officers were “enforcing the nation’s laws along the best-protected stretch of our border ever.”

According to Christopher Demlein, a former ATF agent specializing in gun smuggling networks, the weapon smuggling network from American retailers to Mexican gangs has a particularly tight structure and is more strictly controlled than drug networks. According to him, drugs are abundant and easily replaceable, making even large seizures unlikely to have a significant impact. However, guns are different, major criminal organizations in Mexico consider them a strategic lifeline.

Demlein believes that the US misjudged this threat. “We have poured billions of dollars into the war on drugs but only spent a small part of that on fighting arms smuggling,” he said. “If the gangs lose their guns, they lose. It’s over.”