Mexican cartels have begun using weapons smuggled from Ukraine
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — American weapons delivered to Ukraine are making their way back to North America in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. What Ukrainians sell on the DarkNet is bought all over the world. Like a huge supermarket, the DarkNet supplies criminal organizations regardless of the origin of the weapon. BulgarianMilitary.com recalls that last year Interpol warned that similar transactions are expected and that weapons delivered to Ukraine may end up in “criminal and terrorist organizations.”
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The first reports of weapons smuggled from Ukraine to Mexico began to arrive. Mexican drug cartels reportedly not only already use it, but don’t even bother to hide the fact that the weapon was supplied by Ukraine. There are already cases of direct death threats against Mexican journalists who dared to talk about a “demonstration of Ukrainian weapons”.
We’ll find you
A video recorded by a man claiming to be a Mexican journalist [vlogger] talks about his investigation into the supply of weapons to Mexican drug cartels. He received a death threat worded as follows: “We will find you. You and everyone dear to you will suffer for your words. A bounty has already been set on your head.”
In fact, the appearance of smuggled Ukrainian weapons in North America was expected. At the end of last year, BulgarianMilitary.com reported on a Finnish police officer who with his team was monitoring the ports. Mr. Christer Algren, the crime commissioner of the Central Criminal Police spoke about his operations against the smuggled Ukrainian weapons that reach the motorcycle gangs in the country and in the Scandinavian part of Europe.
Combat weapons, assault rifles, grenades, bombs, and even drones are arriving from Ukraine. Finnish intelligence, Mr. Algren said then, monitors ports and airports. In addition to Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands are also forced to organize secret operations to seize contraband weapons from Ukraine. You can read the full story of Officer Christer Algren.
$30,000
BulgarianMilitary.com is not the first to warn that there is a fairly organized illegal trade in Ukrainian weapons on the DarkNet. There are at least a dozen reports of US Javelin anti-tank systems being sold, ranging in price from $25-30,000.
It is only logical that once the weapons have made their way back to the continent they came from, we would expect Ukrainian smuggled weapons to end up in the hands of well-known terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Although, at the moment, BulgarianMilitary.com has no reports that this is a fact, logically leads us precisely in this direction.
Let’s recall an interesting case. French lawyer Régis de Castelnau posted a tweet on June 20 last year claiming that two French Caesar self-propelled howitzers were located at the Russian tank factory UralVagonZavod. “2 French Caesar guns were intercepted intact by the Russians. They are currently at the Uralvagonzavod factory in the Urals for research and possibly reverse engineering. Thank you Macron, we are paying,” read Mr. Régis de Castelnau’s tweet.
According to some reports, the two howitzers were sold for $120,000 each. Official Paris later rejected Castelnau’s claims as false and false.
Ukraine confirms
At one point last year, even Ukraine admitted to smuggling both humanitarian aids delivered into the country and weapons. In mid-July, The Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine announced that registered repeated sales of humanitarian aid coming from Western countries, as well as arms. This was announced by the director of the department, Vadim Melnik, on the air of the TV channel “24 Ukraine News”.
“Even military goods are sold for cash. We have such facts,” Melnik said. According to him, the bureau is investigating cases related to the sale of humanitarian aid received from foreign partners.
As far as the sale of military products and weapons is concerned, the department has already registered around ten such criminal cases. Melnik stressed that this is an incomplete number of similar crimes, as other Ukrainian law enforcement agencies register similar violations.
DSCA
In fact, not only Ukraine and Interpol, but DSCA, the agency in charge of foreign US arms sales, also expressed their concerns about illegal trade. The agency, for example, says they have no information about the weapons they delivered. They rely solely on the information provided by Ukraine. DSCA therefore insisted on field control. Please read what DSCA says about gun control in Ukraine.
These examples and all others not reported so far are not intended to tarnish Ukraine’s struggle against Russia. Fairly speaking – during times of war throughout human history there is evidence of illegal and contraband trade. It is logical to have when there is no control. There is a saying that most accurately describes this whole situation: “You always reap what you sow”.
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