Mexican Government Importing Most US Guns Used by Cartels

This should not come as any surprise, but the US has been exporting tens of thousands of military grade M4s to the military and police in Mexico. Mexican authorities are purchasing the firearms through a program called "direct commercial sales", where they order the firearms directly from the US manufacturer and only need the request signed off by the US State Department (aka ex Sec of State Hillary Clinton 2009-2013), unfortunately about a quarter or more of these guns are ending up in the hands of the cartels. One of driving forces behind this transfer of weapons to the cartels is since 2007, over 150,000 Mexican soldiers have defected to the cartels "and I think it's safe to assume that when they defect they take their firearms with them." In 2006 Mexico bought about 2500 rifles, however since the end of the Fast and Furious program, Mexico has upped the purchase by almost a factor of 10; 18,700 in 2009 (the State Department estimates 26% of these rifles ended up in the hands of the cartels or other "unfavorable" results). "The Mexican military recently reported nearly 9,000 police weapons "missing."" Since 2010 "the State Department has since stopped disclosing numbers of guns it approves", but if we use 20,000 as an average, Mexico has imported about 100,000 M4's in the last 5 years. Legal US Gun Sales to Mexico Arming Cartels
 
This also seems to undermine the entire Straw Purchase complaint and investigation that was the impetus for the failed debacle that was Fast and Furious. Sure, there have been those that buy guns in the US and smuggle them into Mexico, but due to the relative small numbers, most of those where offered for purchase to civilians, not the cartel. Further Fast and Furious threw a monkey wrench into investigating the the Mexican Straw Purchase smuggling, when the DOJ encouraged FFL dealers to sell guns to suspected smugglers. This greatly increased the amount of firearms that were being smuggled into Mexico (as most the dealers would not normally sell to the suspected Straw Purchase, smugglers but did so at the behest of Eric Holder and the DOJ) so some of them ended up in the hands of the cartels. But again the mother load of US firearms in Mexico were legally imported by the Mexican Army and Police and it is these firearms that have been arming the cartels.

So, the next time you hear complaints about US guns in the hands of the cartels (as from the Mexican or US President) it's worth remembering that vast majority (in 2009, Mexico had become one of the world's largest purchasers of U.S. guns through direct commercial sales) were imported by the Mexican Government themselves, who are so inept and corrupt, that they can't keep the guns out of the hands of the cartels..