MEXICO CITY, Jan 23, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Mexico said Monday that US military
weapons had been detected entering the Latin American nation, which blames
firearms trafficking from its northern neighbor for fueling drug cartel-
related violence.

The Mexican defense ministry has alerted Washington about inflows of arms
that are supposed to be "for the exclusive use of the US army," Foreign
Minister Alicia Barcena said at a news conference.

"It's very urgent that an investigation be carried out," she added, without
give more details.

The arms smuggling was one of the issues discussed by the two countries in
Washington on Friday during a visit by Barcena and other senior Mexican
officials, she said.

Mexico has long pointed the finger at the United States and its lax gun laws
for the flow of weapons to its cartels, which in turn are often funded by
selling drugs to US consumers.

The Mexican government has filed two lawsuits in US courts against the
firearms industry.

The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, told reporters on Monday that
reducing weapon flows from the United States to Mexico was a priority for
President Joe Biden.

"We know that 70 percent of the weapons that cause violence here in Mexico
come from the United States," he said.

More than half a million weapons are trafficked into Mexico from the United
States annually, according to authorities in the Latin American nation.

Mexico tightly controls weapons sales, making them practically impossible to
obtain legally, but drug-related violence involving firearms remains
widespread.

There have been more than 420,000 murders since 2006 when the Mexican
government deployed the military to fight drug trafficking, most of them
blamed on criminal gangs.