HomeNewsWeapons Trafficking Rife on Mexico's Social Media
NEWS

Weapons Trafficking Rife on Mexico's Social Media

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 12 OCT 2021 BY MARIA LUISA VALENCIA EN

Arms traffickers in Mexico continue to sell their wares on social media networks that offer them visibility and anonymity and in complete defiance of measures taken to stop them.

A recent video circulating on social media, shared by leading Mexican journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva, features a WhatsApp user showing images from a purported catalog of more than 100 weapons shared with potential customers by WhatsApp.

The user, registered as "Escualo," offers firearms, grenades and sophisticated accessories, such as silencers and scopes, in Mexico City. The advertised prices for the weapons were three times higher than those at gun stores in the United States, according to Gómez Leyva.

SEE ALSO: Gang in Mexico Offers 'Drug Menu' Via Encrypted WhatsApp

This is not the first time that Mexico has grappled with this problem.

This phenomenon has evolved over the years. In 2018, the newspaper El Universal warned about a growing arms sales trend on social networks, especially in Mexico's central state of San Luis Potosí.

Then in early 2019, Mexico City's online crime police unit stated it was monitoring 13 groups on social media platforms dedicated to selling weapons in the capital.

In August 2019, MVS Noticias gained access to a WhatsApp chat in which a wide range of weapons was being sold. Finally, in January 2021, a woman and a teenage accomplice were arrested in Mexico City's neighborhood of Iztapalapa for selling firearms, explosives and drugs on social networks.

InSight Crime Analysis

The use of social media platforms to sell weapons is proving stubbornly difficult to resolve, despite measures taken to stop it by governments and companies alike.

In 2016, Facebook and Instagram banned the sale of weapons on their platforms worldwide after being pressured to do by then-US President Barack Obama. But very quickly, this ban seemed to be relatively toothless since dedicated groups continued to thrive.

In 2020, Mexico's Defence Ministry announced its own crackdown on Internet sales of weapons.

But both groups and individual sales listings for firearms continue to be commonplace on Facebook. In a search on the social media platform, InSight Crime rapidly found several groups. One of these, Venta De Armas De Fuego México, was created in August 2021, had around 1,500 members and was selling Beretta and Ruger pistols with dozens of comments by interested buyers.

SEE ALSO: US Hemorrhaging Weapons to Mexico, One at a Time

Stemming the online sales of firearms must begin with the broader problem, the massive flow of weapons legally bought in the United States and smuggled to Mexico. With guns bought in the United States pouring into the country and responsible for numerous murders in Mexico, it seems access to those guns is now becoming easier.

The legal hurdles faced in Mexico to acquire weapons present a stark contrast with the lack of gun sale controls in the United States. Between 2013 and 2018, 70 percent of all guns seized by Mexican authorities were traced back to the United States.

In 2020, the Houston Chronicle discovered that a single person with no criminal record managed to purchase 156 guns from the same gun store in the southern part of the United States within a span of just six months. The individual then resold those weapons to Mexican cartels, which in turn resold them to other traffickers. By the time they reached the final buyer, the surcharge had reached 300 percent, similar to the rates observed in the Escualo catalog.

In 2017, Small Arms Survey estimated that 16.8 million legal and illicit firearms were present in Mexico.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ECUADOR / 16 NOV 2021

After yet another prison massacre, Ecuadorean authorities have doubled down on Mexico’s two biggest cartels being behind gang warfare in…

GULF CARTEL / 15 MAR 2022

Mexican armed forces have captured the reported leader of the feared Northeast Cartel, but this arrest may only stoke further…

COSTA RICA / 27 JUN 2022

Two months ago, Conti, one of the most-feared cybercrime operations in the world, unleashed a blitz of raids against websites…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…