Mexico’s Bold Battle to Stop the ‘Iron River’ of U.S. Guns Fueling Cartel Violence

During one of the deadliest chapters in its history, Mexico’s government devised a new strategy to curb gun violence; it filed two lawsuits. The first, in 2021, included U.S. gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and one of their wholesalers. The second filed a year later against five U.S. gun stores, claimed they engaged in “reckless and unlawful business practices” that supply dangerous criminals.

An estimated 200,000 to half a million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year. Mexico asked American attorney Jonathan Lowy to help cut off the gun pipeline, known as the “Iron River.”

“If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico,” Lowy said. “And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels.”

Mexico’s Gun Laws

Like the U.S., Mexico’s constitution grants its citizens the right to bear arms. But unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions.

There’s also a big difference in the number of gun dealers. In the U.S., there are more than 75,000 active gun dealers, twice as many as U.S. post offices. While in Mexico, there’s just one gun store. It’s located in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City.

Before customers can even enter, they must show proof they’ve passed psychological tests, drug screens, and extensive background checks. The store sells about 1,000 guns a month, mostly shotguns, small caliber rifles, and handguns.

Cartel Gun Violence In Mexico

The high-caliber guns the cartels favor are not sold legally to civilians in Mexico. However, the cartels have no trouble getting them elsewhere.

On Oct. 17, 2019, Mexican armed forces captured one of the most wanted drug lords in the world, Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of the former Sinaloa cartel boss known as El Chapo. What should have been a turning point in the war on drugs turned into a deadly, five-hour gun battle? Hundreds of cartel gunmen outfitted for combat doused soldiers with gunfire, took hostages, and blocked entrances to the city with burning vehicles.

Outgunned and hoping to end the bloodshed, Mexico’s president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ordered Guzmán released. This past March, 60 Minutes spoke with then-President López Obrador. Homicides and cartel violence soared during his six-year term, and he said the U.S. was partly to blame.