Around eight in ten of the more than 24,000 firearms seized in Mexico since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office entered the country from the United States, according to the federal government.
The latest government data shows that authorities seized 24,122 firearms between Oct. 1, 2024 — the date Sheinbaum was sworn in — and Feb. 28, 2026. The Sheinbaum administration has been seizing guns at a significantly higher rate than the previous government led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
On Feb. 27, during the president’s morning press conference, federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch told reporters that “approximately 80%” of the seized guns come from the United States.
He said that in the case of larger-caliber weapons, such as machine guns and Barrett rifles, all of the firearms seized during the current government came from the United States.
Such powerful weapons are favored by members of Mexico’s notorious drug cartels, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The firearms are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S., often after they have been purchased by straw buyers. García Harfuch said Feb. 27 that 20% of firearm seizures during the current government occurred in Sinaloa, the main stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Mexico has long been pushing the United States to do more to stop the southward flow of guns across the countries’ shared border, a phenomenon that created what former foreign affairs minister and current Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard described in 2022 as a “firearms pandemic.”
As the U.S. government has designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, the southward flow of weapons serves to arm terrorists, it could be argued.
Sheinbaum has acknowledged that the Trump administration has ramped up the fight against gun smuggling from the U.S. to Mexico, and last September the two countries launched a new bilateral initiative aimed at disrupting the southward flow of illicit weapons.
However, on Monday, responding to Donald Trump’s assertion on Saturday that Mexico is the “epicenter of cartel violence,” the president indicated that she would like to see an even greater U.S. crackdown on arms trafficking.
“We believe there is something the United States can help us with enormously: stopping the illegal trafficking of weapons from the United States to Mexico,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that “at least 75%” of weapons in the possession of organized crime groups come from the United States, and cited a U.S. Department of Justice report to support her claim.
“If the entry of illegal weapons from the United States into Mexico is stopped, these groups will not have this type of high-powered weaponry to carry out their criminal activities,” she said.
“So that is something the United States can help us with a lot,” she added.
Most homicides in Mexico are committed with firearms, and most of the guns used to commit the crimes come from the United States, according to Mexican authorities.
In 2021, the Mexican government sued a number of United States-based gun manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of negligent business practices that have led to illegal arms trafficking and deaths in Mexico.
However, last June, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Mexico’s US $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. gunmakers, ruling unanimously that a 2005 law shields the defendants from prosecution.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
