it's military grade yes ma'am
they call it the Iron River
Day and Night American Guns are flowing
across the border into the hands of
Mexican gangsters
fueling an arms race between the cartels
terrorizing innocent civilians caught in
the crossfire
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foreign
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it's almost midnight and we're following
this person and is driving this car
right in front of us it's uh allegedly
someone who transports guns down to
Mexico
we're just looking for an isolated place
to park and talk
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for years I've cultivated sources in
Mexico who have connections to the
cartels
one of them has helped me gain access to
an la-based operation that moves guns
South of the Border
transported
foreign
she won't reveal her name but tells me
to call her laguera or Blondie
Blondie tells me she's been working for
the Sinaloa cartel since she was 18.
and has driven Vehicles packed with
American weapons into Mexico at least a
hundred times
for her efforts she's paid twenty
thousand dollars a month
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um
Blondie is just a low-level Courier she
can't or won't tell me who her suppliers
are
the buyers on the other hand are less of
a mystery
come on
35 000 murders were committed in Mexico
in 2019 the most ever recorded
and yet there's only one gun store in
the whole country
it turns out 70 percent of the weapons
seized by Mexican authorities originated
in the United States
the following night my cartel contact
set me up with Blondie's la-based
suppliers nice to meet you nice to meet
you I'm Mariana
the lead supplier tells me to call him
tea okay then introduces me to his
cousin and 17 year old niece
so it's somebody down in Mexico who's
your relative who called you and said
asked you to do this favor to show us
this operation up here yes
we're not cops I'm a journalist and
that's why I'm doing what I'm doing good
right now or I'll see you guys want to
be this close
I see that you've got some stuff ready
here yes and are these going down
tonight they're going they should get a
shirt out tonight actually
how do you get a hold of so many weapons
well actually honestly I'm gonna be
honest with you this one we do better
from a police officer they just took it
a wish
and he gave it back to us for a thousand
dollars we just get that for like 700 so
he made 300 worth of that wait wait wait
wait wait wait LAPD LAPD so the officer
confiscated the weapon and then you paid
him a thousand dollars to get the weapon
back yes ma'am oh wow and then this one
was actually
from San Diego all this is different
right but they're all ultimately come
from law enforcement here in California
so in general just outside of California
in general how easy is it to get guns in
the United States easy
one
so this is the AR-15 right yes that's
the AR-15
military
that law enforcement used
so this for me is so insane because I
live here in Los Angeles this is my
backyard the fact that I'm holding an
AR-15 with another one next to me and an
AK-47 these are the guns that are
killing Mexicans on a daily basis the
cocktails are going at it with that AR
M16s mini-14s but that's the killing
machine behind
these are the same weapons being used in
many of America's mass shootings
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this is crazy because we're on the
corner out in the open there's cars
passing
it's like 10 p.m regular weekday night
in Los Angeles and they're gonna stash
the guns in this car and then the car is
going to go to Mexico
foreign
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River moves quickly
I can't ride with blondie in her cargo
but I know where she plans to deliver
the guns
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180 miles Southeast of Los Angeles lies
Mexicali
a Dusty desert town that sits along the
U.S Mexico border
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this is where Blondie told me to meet
her if she hasn't been apprehended
foreign
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okay she's right here I think that's her
car right there
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yep that's her
the keys apparently this is how it works
she hides the key under the mat the door
the car mat and then somebody else will
come here get the car take it away and
then call her when the car is ready so
we just stay here and we wait let me see
she's actually leaving the car right now
okay now off she goes
and supposedly now
she says somebody else is gonna show up
and take the car
do you see somebody
oh yeah
okay
is that it there's a guy coming this way
okay yes this is it
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this guy knows we're following him
sorry sorry sorry
I don't know much I don't know about
this guy just I believe this he works
for the guy that received the guns here
in Mexico
um
so he's another Link in this chain
we follow the SUV until it pulls into a
small garage
foreign
standing in this small quiet garage in
Mexicali I have no idea what the Iron
River is waiting for me further
Downstream
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my quest to trace the flow of American
weapons into Mexico has brought me to
this Garage in the Border Town of
Mexicali
Mexico's drug cartels run a
multi-billion dollar criminal industry
but in a country with exactly one legal
gun store Firearms are almost impossible
to acquire
unless you know someone like Hector
wow check this out
Gracie this just wrapped in a denim
jacket oh no in the denim no jeans I'm
jeans here Hector fills orders from the
cartels
with a massive markup
so we've got a nine millimeter 22
caliber both of these have already been
sold for 3500 a piece
and then there's an AR-15 here that's
been sold for five thousand dollars and
there is a Colt 45 here and a Glock
Hector says he's a businessman and in a
country with a skyrocketing murder rate
business is booming
personas is
it's dangerous to pry into organized
crime affiliations in Mexico
but Hector is part of the same supply
chain as Blondie and I'm fairly certain
they both work for the Sinaloa cartel
the dominant drug cartel in this area
foreign
foreign
s are being smuggled into Mexico you
first have to understand that there are
more than a dozen drug cartels here
all competing to supply the world's
largest consumer of illegal drugs
the United States
in 2006 The Mexican government decided
to crush this Supply and launched their
own War on Drugs but the plan backfired
and Unleashed a wave of violence that 14
years later is deadlier than ever
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back
both the military and local competition
the cartels need Firepower
so they look to the most heavily armed
country in the world with some of the
most lenient gun laws
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800 miles south of Los Angeles lysine
aloha Mexico's drug capital
the Sinaloa cartel produced the most
infamous Mexican drug lord of all time
El Chapo Guzman
this is my fifth time working in
kuliacan
but I've never arrived quite like this
we just got here last night and this is
the first time we took out the cameras
and immediately within seconds we got a
call that there was a shooting right
that tells you the level of violence
that we live in this city
is becoming like a war zone now
Miguel Angel Vega is a local journalist
and an old friend
we work together every time I come to
Sinaloa
he tells me gun violence in the city has
spiked recently and no one knows exactly
why
some say outside cartels are trying to
muscle their way into Sinaloa
others suspect the Sinaloa cartel has
internally splintered since El Chapo's
capture
as different factions battle with El
Chapo Sons for control
whatever the reason 82 people were
killed here the month before I arrived
that's one murder every 10 hours
oh it's right here so we're here guys
foreign
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there was a guy inside who was shot
several times
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I try to find out more but no one wants
to speak to me
impunity rains across Mexico
95 of murders like this are never solved
yeah they're scared to talk you know a
lot of people around here even if when
their witnesses to Crime if they're go
on television or talk to the Press about
what they saw that can get them in
serious trouble that can get them killed
so they don't feel comfortable talking
they definitely know something they just
don't want to talk to us
Miguel has more luck with his crime beat
contacts the victim was allegedly part
of the Mexican underworld though it's
unclear which Cartel he belonged to
he recently arrived in Sinaloa from
Tijuana and just before noon this
morning two assassins followed him into
the building supply store and shot him
four times at Point Blank Range we still
don't know what kind of weapon was used
but he says usually the vast majority of
times it's either AR-15s or AK-47s it's
assault weapons and the vast majority of
times it's well known that those weapons
come from the United States
yeah
we have the green light we have their
permission to enter to this territory
we're going not supposed to tell you the
name of the town not even the name of
this region just basically saying that
we're in the south of culiacan that's
all I can tell you
for me it's not enough to know these
these American Guns are pouring into
Mexico
I want to meet the
the ones pulling the trigger in murders
like the one we saw yesterday this is
the belly of the beast when it comes to
Narco trafficking in Mexico
this is the point that we have to stop
the cars and then we're gonna have to
walk
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these men are called sicarios hired
Killers employed by the Sinaloa cartel
to protect their products and eliminate
the competition yes
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thank you
foreign
I'm reminded that the cartel's billion
dollar profits may come from the drug
trade but their real source of power
will always be violence
cancer
is
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for men like this the gun is seen as an
essential tool to change their fortunes
just like El Chapo
awesome linear
and that is what fuels the never-ending
cycle of violence in Mexico
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the extraordinary profits made from
America's insatiable demand for drugs
means the cartels will always find a
supply of eager young recruits
and the more I see the more I'm
convinced that the violence is only
going to get worse
since the War on Drugs began forty
thousand men women and children remain
unaccounted for
they are simply called
the disappeared
four times a week 52 weeks a year Marie
Isabel Cruz leads a group of grieving
mothers who search for their sons and
daughters
they just found this tape they say it's
very common to find you know bodies that
have been wrapped around or they protect
such strong smell they put tape around
the face they tell me they've recovered
78 bodies so far
but not Marie Isabelle's son josimar
as
is
josima was a member of a sinaloan police
unit
aggressively combating the cartels
on January 26 2017 a group of hooded and
heavily armed narcos broke into
josimar's home and in front of his
fiancee dragged him out into the night
he was never seen or heard from again
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foreign
contract
is
let's see
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puede Para
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