Republished with permission from borderlandbeat.com:
Mexican authorities seized USD 11.5 million in cash hidden in a truck carrying strawberries at a customs checkpoint near the US border, officials said today. The stash was concealed in 306 packages wrapped with black plastic, at a checkpoint just south of the city of Sonoyta, Sonora. Sonoyta is 2.5 miles south of the US border and Lukeville, Arizona. This occurred on Sunday although it was not reported to the public until Tuesday. The discovery was made . . .
after a gamma-ray scanner found “a variation” in the cargo, said the defense ministry in a statement. Some 30 boxes of ammunitions, in various caliber, were also found in the truck. The statement did not say whether the truck was coming from or going to the United States. The driver was handed over to prosecutors.
Drug cartels regularly ship weapons and cash from their drug proceeds into Mexico from the United States.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: drug cartels are a loose, ever-changing confederation of criminals, from drug lords to plaza bosses to drug mules and soldiers. While some “entrepreneurs” at the sharp end may pick up firearms in the U.S., the cartels have tens of thousands of guns that somehow “seeped” from official U.S. and foreign sales to the Mexican police and military.
The cartels also have access to tens of thousands more firearms from the millions of guns sent south by Uncle Sam and his allies/enemies to support one government or cartel or another. Straw purchases account for a statistically insignificant percentage of cartel arsenals. Given the drug thugs cash stockpiles – which total billions of dollars – the cartels need U.S. gun store guns like Donald Trump needs to remove his PC filter.