12 Countries Now Supply Guns to Mexican Cartels

Official data shows that in recent years devices manufactured in Austria, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, and Brazil have been intercepted at Mexican customs.

While the majority of weaponry and tactical equipment seized by the Mexican government at customs is manufactured in the United States, official data now show that devices manufactured in at least twelve other countries have also been intercepted in recent years.

According to information from Mexico's National Customs Agency (ANAM), disseminated through the National Transparency Platform with data from 2022 through February of this year, 110 weapons of different calibers, magazines, ammunition, and even a grenade originating from countries other than the United States were seized last year alone.

For example, on February 21, 2025, five pistols of different calibers with the legend "Taurus Armas Made in Brazil," as well as two magazines with the same legend, were seized at the customs office in Nuevo Laredo, recognized as the busiest in the country. Three days later, two "Walther Arms Fort Smith Ar" pistols manufactured in Germany were intercepted, as well as two magazine parts of the same brand.

Also last year, a Beretta brand short gun arrived from Italy, with its respective loaded magazine and 17 useful cartridges, in addition to a revolver-type pistol "Mod 1960, Mondial."

"The work being done by the governments of Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico and Donald Trump in the United States to curb the flow of weapons across the shared border, work based on increased inspections, investigations, and prosecutions of traffickers, has led Mexican organized crime to seek ways to continue receiving weapons from other countries," estimates John Mercury, a member of the Stop US Gun Shipments to Mexico initiative of the Global Exchange organization.

In a telephone interview, he added that Mexican drug traffickers take advantage of the networks they have created in Europe and Asia to obtain weapons, using the "ant trafficking" method and bringing them by sea, mainly. "They usually obtain them through specialized intermediaries, they also exchange drugs for weapons with local mafias, and they import them illegally in parts, through maritime containers, which they then assemble in Mexico, but lately they also use the so-called ant trafficking through emissaries," he explained.

China, Russia, Austria, Japan, Croatia, Argentina, Turkey, and Spain are other countries of origin of weapons that appear on the ANAM list.

Of Chinese manufacture, for example, eight boxes of "Plano" brand ammunition were found on September 15, 2025, at the Manzanillo customs, while on October 25 a Sig Sauer brand telescopic sight was found "with the legends 'Romeo-MSR Gen II, Juliet3 Micro', Made in China."

Between 2022 and 2024, parts manufactured in Austria were also found, such as four Glock pistols detected in January 2022; 32 useful cartridges of 7.62 by 39 caliber intercepted from Russia; as well as seven thousand pieces of cartridges of the same caliber Wolf brand found in November 2022.

In July of last year, customs agents found a handgun of Croatian origin, while in September 2024 they seized a magazine labeled "Springfield Armory Hs Produkt Karlovac Croatia." Separately, 47 live rounds of ammunition were located in May 2023, originating from Serbia.

Among the seizures in which the origin of the items found was recorded, last year alone in 44 cases the origin of the weapons was the United States, from where not only short and long firearms arrived, but also usable cartridges, magazines, grips, cases, and even a grenade.

"Arizona has become the primary source and corridor for arms trafficking to Mexican criminal groups. The proportion of U.S.-origin firearms one year or less old coming from Arizona increased dramatically, from 17 percent in 2016 to 62 percent in 2024. In other words, arms traffickers’ preference for Arizona continues to grow," Mercury said.

"On the Mexican side, Sinaloa, the land of El Chapo Guzmán and his sons, is the state that receives the most weapons from the United States, with a total of 2,095 firearms seized by the Mexican Army last year alone," the expert concluded.