As Sinaloa’s conflict grinds on, firearms traced to recent US sales are increasingly linked to Arizona
When war broke out within the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organisations, people hoped it would last just a few months.
But more than a year and a half later it is still going, fuelled by a flow of firearms from the US – specifically from Arizona, which has surged past Texas to become the top source of guns seized in Mexico and traced to a recent US purchase.
“We have an enormous problem with gun trafficking by the Mexican drug cartels from Arizona down into Mexico,” Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, told the Guardian. “There is no doubt in my mind about that.”
When Mexican authorities recover guns, they can submit the serial numbers to be traced by their US counterparts. And according to the most recent available data, 62% of the guns seized in Mexico in 2024 and traced to a US purchase less than a year earlier – a key indicator they were bought to be trafficked – came from Arizona.
