Mexican Cartels Use Contraband Ammunition Manufactured at a Pentagon Plant

Mexican police are “overwhelmed” by drug cartels due to the use of weapons and ammunition manufactured for the U.S. military, the New York Times (NYT) reported.

Drug traffickers are using .50-caliber ammunition—produced at a plant owned by the U.S. Army and then smuggled across the border—in attacks against Mexican civilians and police, the newspaper noted, highlighting one particular incident.

On the morning of November 30, 2019, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying gunmen armed with a powerful heavy machine gun and .50-caliber rifles entered the town of Villa Unión, Coahuila, and opened fire.

They had been sent on a mission of intimidation: they planned to set fire to the town hall. Their firepower was clearly superior to that of the state and local police officers, who were awaiting military reinforcements. Terrified residents scrambled for cover from the hail of bullets.

“The smell of smoke filled the streets, and spent shell casings covered the ground like fallen leaves,” Luis Manzano, a Mexican journalist who drove into the town during the shootout, told the American newspaper. But his most vivid memory was the thunder of the guns.

“The ground was shaking,” he said. “I had never experienced anything like it.”

When the military arrived, they drove off the attackers. The attack left four police officers, two civilians, and 19 cartel members dead.

Investigators collecting evidence at the scene recovered .45 and .50-caliber shell casings bearing the initials “L.C.,” which stand for the U.S. Army’s Lake City Ammunition Plant, just outside Kansas City, a federally owned facility and the largest manufacturer of rifle cartridges used by Pentagon forces. The factory also supplies ammunition to American consumers, including .50-caliber cartridges. These powerful bullets—as large as a medium-sized cigar and designed for military use to destroy vehicles and light aircraft—are available for purchase by civilians throughout the United States, the New York Times reported.

Source: La Jornads