Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Goodman, Colby and Michel Marizco. 2010 ‘US Government Actions.’ US Firearms Trafficking to Mexico: New Data and Insights Illuminate Key Trends and Challenges; Working Paper Series on US-Mexico Cooperation, p. 15. San Diego, CA: Trans-Border Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, University of San Diego. 1 September
Relevant contents
US Government Actions
In the last few years, the U.S. government has also been seizing more U.S. firearms intended for illegal transfer to Mexico. In the last six months of FY 2009, for example, ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] staff reportedly seized nearly 600 illegal weapons (including ammunition magazines, rounds of ammunition, components including primers and shell casings, silencers, night vision devices, and firearms), which is 50 percent higher than the last six months of FY 2008.(76)
From March 25, 2009 through March 12, 2010, ICE's Operation Armas Cruzadas seized 125 firearms and 13,386 rounds of ammunition.(77) Since its creation in 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Armas Curzadas has resulted in the seizure of 3,877 weapons and 396,414 rounds of ammunition.(78)
In 2009, ATF [US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] seized 2,630 firearms and 267,963 rounds of ammunition specifically related to investigations on U.S. firearms trafficking to Mexico. For FY 2009, ATF took into custody a total of 16,383 firearms, some of which could have had been headed for Mexico.
From the start of Project Gunrunner in FY 2005 until the end of FY 2009, ATF seized 6,688 firearms associated with Project Gunrunner prosecutions.
Sources cited:
76) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Border contraband seizures soar as DHS, ATF hold summit in San Diego, News Release, November 3, 2009, online at http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/2009/11/110309-atf-dhs-contraband-seizures.pdf.
77) Statement of John Morton, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Regarding a Hearing on "Update on Southwest Border; The Challenges that DHS Continues to Face," Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security, April 14, 2010, online at http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/testimony/testimony_1274112299629.shtm.
78) Statement of Janice Ayala, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, May 5, 2010, page 14.