Gun Runners: Arms Trafficking to Mexico

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 2 FEB 2011

The GunRunners joint investigative project — which includes Frontline, the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Investigative Reporting Project — tracks the entire distribution chain of illegal arms trafficking from Europe to Mexico through the United States.

Chapter 1

GunRunners - Introduction to the Joint Project

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 1 FEB 2011

In the little over four years that Felipe Calderon has been president of Mexico, the Mexican government has registered 34,162 deaths due to organized criminal violence. It has also seized…

Chapter 2

CPI: Romanian Weapons Modified in the U.S. Become Scourge of Mexican Drug War

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 2 FEB 2011

(With permission from the Center for Public Integrity.) Camron Scott Galloway, 21, walked into X Caliber Guns in Phoenix, Ariz., on Jan. 30, 2008, and filled out forms…

Chapter 3

IRW: Romania, Vermont, Arizona: Guns Follow Complex Route to Mexican Cartels

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 2 FEB 2011

(With permission from the Investigative Reporting Workshop.) Armed with assault rifles and hand grenades, Arturo Beltran Leyva, head of one of the most ruthless drug cartels in…

Chapter 4

How the Beltran Leyva, Sinaloa Cartel Feud Bloodied Mexico

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 2 FEB 2011

When war broke out between the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) and the Sinaloa Cartel in 2008, it was the bloody culmination of the unraveling of the Federation, the most powerful…

Chapter 5

How Guns are Trafficked Below the Border

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 1 FEB 2011

On both sides of the border, Mexico's cartels have small teams that, among other assignments, procure weapons from different sources. However, according to law enforcement officials, it's unlikely, unnecessary and…

Chapter 6

The Takedown of the 'Boss of Bosses'

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 2 FEB 2011

United States and Mexican authorities were on the heels of Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias 'El Jefe de Jefes' (The Boss of Bosses), for nearly ten months before they finally surrounded…

Related Content

MEXICO / 8 MAR 2012

With the election of Mexico’s next president less than four months away, his party's record on organized crime could be…

JALISCO CARTEL / 23 OCT 2018

Unsealed US indictments against top figures in the Jalisco Cartel New Generation signal the extent to which the group has…

COLOMBIA / 1 NOV 2019

An altar laden with human skulls and bones was used by a powerful Mexico City gang in the worship of…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…

icon #SupportFreePress
image

Support Our Work

Investigating organized crime is an expensive and often risky enterprise. Reaching primary sources and getting the real story involve extensive fieldwork. Please donate. Every dollar supports our mission.

DONATE NOW image