US Teens Buy Guns Legally and Sell Them to Mexican Cartels, NYT Reports

Washington — Middle and high school students across the United States form part of a growing network that allegedly helps arm some of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, according to a New York Times report.

Officials in Washington and drug-trafficking experts say the youths obtain pistols and high-caliber rifles and sell them almost exclusively to cartel members based in the United States. Mexican criminal groups increasingly turn to teenagers and young adults in border states such as Arizona, the newspaper reported.

Police officials said the networks are expanding because of proximity to Mexico, the large number of drug cartel members living in the United States and the promise of easy money. They said the trade has accelerated with new technologies, including the WhatsApp and Telegram messaging apps.

One of the teenagers told the newspaper that he and his friends raised $700 to start the business by selling snacks and working at a restaurant. One of them was already 18 and was able to buy a Kalashnikov-style rifle from a licensed dealer, which they sold for $1,200. They immediately reinvested the proceeds in more weapons, again and again.

“I don’t care what they do or who they kill, as long as I make my money,” he said. “I’m sure they’re not innocent.”

The young traffickers said they usually store the weapons in hideouts or at their homes until cartel members collect them. They sometimes pay other students to carry the guns across the border and deliver them to designated locations in Mexico.