701: Ioan Grillo | How America Arms Gangs and Cartels Part Two

Jul 21, 2022

Ioan Grillo, a contributing writer at The New York Times and author specializing in crime and drugs, dives deep into the alarming flow of U.S. firearms to Mexican cartels. He highlights the staggering 200,000 guns that cross the border each year and discusses legal loopholes that facilitate this trafficking. The podcast also uncovers the role of 'straw buyers' and the implications of outdated gun laws that hamper effective policing. Grillo emphasizes the urgent need for reform to address the pervasive violence tied to these issues.

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ANECDOTE

Gun Trafficker's Routine

Ioan Grillo interviewed a gun trafficker in Sierra Juarez prison who detailed his methods.
The trafficker bought 12-15 AR-15s weekly at Dallas gun shows, exploiting the private sale loophole.

INSIGHT

Straw Purchasing and Cartel Violence

Cartels use straw buyers with clean records to purchase guns due to lenient punishments for this crime.
One straw buyer purchased 10 AK-47s for a cartel, used in an American agent's murder, yet only received probation.

INSIGHT

ATF Tracing Limitations

A surprising fact is that the ATF cannot digitally trace guns due to a Reagan-era law.
This law requires manual tracing through phone calls and physical records, hindering investigations.

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Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) is a contributing writer at The New York Times specializing in crime and drugs. He is the author of El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency; Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America; and Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels. [This is part two of a two-part episode. Make sure to check out part one here!]

What We Discuss with Ioan Grillo:

The Iron River may sound like something you'd find on a map of Westeros, but it's just a quaint term for the 200,000 guns manufactured or sold in the US moving across the border to Mexico every year.
The private-sale loophole that allows "collectors" in the US to sell guns without requiring identification, background checks, or paperwork — often to criminals and cartels at a tidy profit.
How "straw buyers" — that is, people with clean records — are paid by gun traffickers to pass background checks and buy firearms en masse without raising any red flags. If they are arrested in the act, however, their punishment rarely exceeds probation.
There are 130,000 licensed firearms dealers in the US from which ill-intentioned gun traffickers can make their shady purchases. If that doesn't sound like that many, consider that there are only 14,000 McDonald's restaurants.
Thanks to a Reagan-era law enacted ostensibly to protect the privacy of gun owners, the ATF finds its ability to efficiently trace guns hobbled because it can't use searchable, digital databases of sales.
And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/701

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