In the last four years, Ioan Grillo traveled thousands of kilometers on crossings that took him from Mexico to the United States, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Colombia, while following a trail of iron and blood.
Beyond the multi-million dollar figures and chilling statistics, the writer was looking for answers to an ethical dilemma.
"Are you worried that the weapons you sell, legally, may later fall into the hands of criminals or terrorists?" He asked an arms dealer in Bulgaria.
The man stared at him and said no.
At least 15% of patients receiving mental health treatments have access to weapons, study finds
Aug. 10, 202101: 33
[Mexico sues US arms manufacturers for not preventing illegal trafficking]
The complex world of arms trafficking and its intimate relationship with the rise of violence in countries like Mexico is the central theme of
Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels
, a comprehensive investigation that took Grillo around the world as he persecuted designers, manufacturers, distributors, traffickers and criminals united by a single product: weapons.
“The arms industry, like the drug industry, is fascinating because they move their products with the logic of globalized capitalism and the connections of their products.
The big difference is that the weapons have serial numbers and can be traced,
”explains Grillo, an English writer and journalist who for more than 20 years has focused on the coverage and analysis of drug trafficking, violence and crime. organized in Latin America.
During his most recent investigation, he was able to reconstruct the history of an AK-47 rifle from the factory that made it in Romania, through its export to the United States, its sale and its introduction to Mexico where it was used to assassinate a law enforcement officer. .
Almost 70,000 people of Latino origin have died from firearms in the last 20 years
Aug. 8, 202101: 38
[At least 10 gunshot wounded in gang attack in Queens, New York]
“
Manufacturers go to great lengths to hide tracking data from the public
, because they don't want to link stores that sell guns to people's deaths.
They are ashamed, ”explains Grillo.
The Mexican government recently filed a lawsuit against major US arms manufacturers and distributors in federal court in Boston, arguing
that their negligent business practices have sparked bloodshed in Mexico.
A 4-year-old girl dies after being accidentally shot by another minor
Aug. 6, 202100: 41
[They arrest a 22-year-old man who killed an agent and injured four others in Texas after more than 10 hours of fighting]
According to the Ministry of Foreign Relations,
70% of the arms that are trafficked to Mexico come from the United States,
and
in 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to arms trafficking.
Authorities estimate that more than 2.5 million guns have crossed the southern border of the United States in the last decade.
Grillo's works were cited in the lawsuit filed by the Mexican authorities.
—Many experts believe that this lawsuit is a symbolic gesture for the legal shield that the arms industry has in the United States. Do you think it will have any practical consequences?
—The lawsuit in Mexico is a different and very interesting initiative because in the United States many changes in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals and tobacco companies, have begun in the courts.
It is important because there are 11 very large companies that will have to bring their lawyers and undergo a judicial process.
In addition, there are precedents such as the lawsuit against Century Arms for the 2019 shooting in Gilroy, California, and the 33 million dollar settlement reached by some families in the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook school with Remington.
The fact that this is talked about in the news and that people comment on it, is already a positive reaction.
Mexico sues at least 11 firearms manufacturers in the United States.
Aug. 5, 202103: 29
[Police presence on highways is reinforced due to the increase in violent incidents of road rage throughout the country]
—The Arms Trade Industrial Association (NSSF) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) responded to the lawsuit saying that the Mexican government is responsible for the criminal boom in the country, what do you think about it?
—The United States does have a great responsibility in arms trafficking and violence in Mexico, although the Mexican Government must improve a lot, the influence of the weapons that arrive through the border cannot be denied.
Imagine that Russia sends two million firearms to Germany and that generates a wave of violence with 200,000 deaths, it would be inconceivable, right?
Manufacturers have to take responsibility and see why their products are getting into the hands of the cartels.
It is not normal for someone to walk into a store and buy 85 firearms.
It is not possible for someone in Florida to acquire a thousand guns for criminals who end up in Colombia or Puerto Rico and are used in murders.
This shows that no basic attempt is made to slow down or reduce this traffic.
And, in the end, companies are making a lot of money because they are millions of firearms.
The Government of Mexico assures that 90% of the illegal weapons used in assassinations come from the United States.
Aug. 4, 202101: 50
[A judge blames the Air Force for the worst mass shooting murder in a Texas church]
- In what year did your investigations detect the increase in the flow of weapons to Mexico?
—From 1994 to 2004 there was a ban that greatly reduced the sale of weapons of war.
When they raised it, huge purchases began to be registered and the war in Mexico began, it was before the government of Felipe Calderón.
Between 2004 and 2006, assault weapons began to be obtained, when fights broke out between Los Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel.
Then everything got worse.
What do the designers, manufacturers, and arms dealers you interviewed for your book think of the violence unleashed by weapons?
—They say that people have always used weapons and see them as tools that are in demand.
And they satisfy her.
As long as they comply with the legality of their countries, they do not see it as something strange.
That is why governments must act with other measures to control this activity.
Denver Security Tightens After Four People Arrested With Large Arsenal
July 13, 202101: 35
[Biden Announces Executive Orders to Prevent Gun Violence, Following Several Recent Shootings]
—In many countries in Europe, arms control has given good results ...
—When controlling the number of firearms in the streets, the number of deaths is reduced.
In France, for example, after the terrorist attacks, restrictions were intensified and that has decreased the attacks, in fact, many are with knives because the opportunities for terrorists and criminals to obtain firearms were closed.
—What is the main difference with the United States and Latin America?
—The explosion of mass shootings in the United States is one of the consequences of the absence of arms controls.
But there is a paradox because, just as there are many armed criminals, it also has trained police officers and many prisons, so there is a certain order to attack organized crime.
These are the measures of Cuomo's executive order against gun violence
July 7, 202102: 38
[The pandemic triggered the sale of firearms in the United States. And it's still on the rise]
In contrast, Latin American countries have thousands of criminals with firearms, mostly from the United States, but they do not have good security forces or the institutions to control the escalation of violence.
In some countries, like Venezuela and Brazil, gangs steal police weapons all the time.
- What is the hybrid armed conflict that is mentioned several times in your most recent book?
—It is a concept that several academics handle and I will return to it.
When you have 700 hit men facing the army it is something different from organized crime, it is something that exceeds the behavior of normal criminal gangs.
However, it does not become a civil war like the one that was experienced in El Salvador during the eighties, so it is a constant conflict in which you are in an apparently normal society and, at the same time, you can have paramilitary groups with 200 guys entering a town in trucks and leaving graves with 300 bodies of victims.
And all that happens at the same time, as we see in Mexico.
