US Border: Heavy Weapons Bound for Mexican Cartels Seized in Arizona
Rocket-propelled grenade launcher, grenades found by US officers.
US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Officers in Arizona have seized a rocket launcher and 2 rocket-propelled grenades hidden in a car headed to Mexico. The CBP says the heavy weapons were likely bound for a Mexican cartel. The discovery comes amidst recent social media posts showing cartel gunmen using increasingly more powerful weapons to protect their turf from rival criminal organizations and Mexican police on the other side of the US-Mexico border.
(NOTE: Phoenix TV stations KTVK/KPHO are now reporting the grenades are "inert" - suggesting they are either replicas or training aides - however, we have yet to see an official statement from US authorities confirming that).
On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, an account on x.com which says it observes "narco culture, guerrillas, and (weaponry)" posted a photo said to be of a member of the Mexican Cartel "La Familia Michoacan" in the Mexican State of Guerrero armed with an M72 rocket-propelled anti-tank weapon originally developed for use by the US military in the 1960's (and which is still manufactured in Arizona and Norway today).
On January 1 & 2, 2025, the x.com account "@cartelinsider1" & "@Mr_Civico" posted drone video of rival cartel members in up-armored trucks engaged in a firefight with .50 caliber Barrett rifles.
The footage was said to show a battle between the "Northeast Cartel" (CDN) and the "Metros" faction of the "Gulf Cartel" (CDG) "somewhere in the Frontera Chica" which is directly across the U.S.–Mexico border from Starr County in South Texas.
It's long been known that a so-called "iron river" of weapons has flowed from the US to Mexico to arm the cartels - however, this illegal trade is increasing in size, caliber, and lethality. But as more evidence of the cartels' use of more powerful (and more deadly) weaponry just across the Rio Grande from Texas and the Southwestern land border between Mexico, Arizona, California, and New Mexico concern is growing that the use of these weapons by the cartels and criminal gangs is spilling over into the United States.
Last year Mexico's "Northeast Cartel" (CDN) - which controls much of the drug traffic between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Laredo, Texas - posted photos of heavily armed members wearing tactical vests identifying them as members of its "Texas Operation" (although it is not known on which side of the border the photos were taken).
Last month when Federal, State, and County law enforcement officers raided a large-scale drug operation of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) Venezuelan gang in Houston officers discovered a cache of high-powered weaponry as well as drugs.
The cartels routinely post photos of its heavily armed members on social media in hopes of intimidating its rivals, the public, and law enforcement officers on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
For now, they continue to restrict the use of their most powerful weapons to the Mexican side of the border. But - with this month's discovery of Mexican cartel gunrunners in Arizona possessing rocket-propelled grenades along with a launcher - U.S. officers worry about facing increasingly deadly weapons as they continue to fight the criminal enterprises of the cartels and migrant gangs on this side of the border.
Do you think more should be done to disrupt the gun-running schemes that are arming the Mexican Cartels?
Feel free to share your opinion in the comments section of this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
