United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Requesters

GAO

United States Government Accountability Office

Report to Congressional Requesters

FIREARMSTRAFFICKINGU.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking toMexico Face Planningand CoordinationChallenges

June 2009GAO-09-709

What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

H

ighlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

June 2009

FIREARMSTRAFFICKING

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Highlights ofGAO-09-709, a report tocongressional requesters

Available evidence indicates many of the firearms fueling Mexican drug violence originated in the United States, including a growing number of increasingly lethal weapons. While it is impossible to know how manyfirearms are illegally smuggled into Mexico in a given year, about 87 percentof firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced in the last 5 yearsoriginated in the United States, according to data from Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). According to U.S. and Mexican government officials, these firearms have beenincreasingly more powerful and lethal in recent years. Many of these firearmscome from gun shops and gun shows in Southwest border states. U.S. andMexican government and law enforcement officials stated most firearms areintended to support operations of Mexican DTOs, which are also responsiblefor trafficking arms to Mexico.The U.S. government faces several significant challenges in combating illicitsales of firearms in the United States and stemming their flow into Mexico. In particular, certain provisions of some federal firearms laws present challengesto U.S. efforts, according to ATF officials. Specifically, officials identified keychallenges related to restrictions on collecting and reporting information onfirearms purchases, a lack of required background checks for private firearmssales, and limitations on reporting requirements for multiple sales. GAO alsofound ATF and Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigrationand Customs Enforcement, the primary agencies implementing efforts toaddress the issue, do not effectively coordinate their efforts, in part becausethe agencies lack clear roles and responsibilities and have been operatingunder an outdated interagency agreement. Additionally, agencies generallyhave not systematically gathered, analyzed, and reported data that could beuseful to help plan and assess results of their efforts to address armstrafficking to Mexico.U.S. law enforcement agencies have provided some assistance to Mexicancounterparts in combating arms trafficking, but these efforts face severalchallenges. U.S. law enforcement assistance to Mexico does not target armstrafficking needs, limiting U.S. agencies’ ability to provide technical oroperational assistance. In addition, U.S. assistance has been limited due toMexican officials’ incomplete use of ATF’s electronic firearms tracing system,an important tool for U.S. arms trafficking investigations. Another significantchallenge facing U.S. efforts to assist Mexico is corruption among someMexican government entities. Mexican federal authorities are implementinganticorruption measures, but government officials acknowledge fullyimplementing these reforms will take considerable time, and may take yearsto affect comprehensive change.

The administration’s recently released National Southwest BorderCounternarcotics Strategy includes, for the first time, a chapter oncombating illicit arms trafficking to Mexico. Prior to the new strategy, theU.S. government lacked a strategy to address arms trafficking to Mexico,and various efforts undertaken by individual U.S. agencies were not part of a comprehensive U.S. governmentwide strategy for addressing the problem. At this point, it’s not clear whether ONDCP’s “implementation plan” for the strategy, which has not been finalized, will include performance indicators and other accountability mechanisms to overcomeshortcomings raised in our report.

In recent years, violence along theU.S.-Mexico border has escalateddramatically, due largely to theMexican government’s efforts todisrupt Mexican drug traffickingorganizations (DTO). U.S. officialsnote the violence associated withMexican DTOs poses a seriouschallenge for U.S. law enforcement,threatening citizens on both sidesof the border, and U.S. andMexican law enforcement officialsgenerally agree many of thefirearms used to perpetrate crimesin Mexico are illicitly traffickedfrom the United States across theSouthwest border.GAO was asked to examine (1)data on the types, sources, andusers of these firearms; (2) keychallenges confronting U.S.government efforts to combat illicitsales of firearms in the UnitedStates and stem the flow of theminto Mexico; (3) challenges facedby U.S. agencies collaborating withMexican authorities to combat the problem of illicit arms; and (4) theU.S. government’s strategy foraddressing the issue. GAO analyzed program information and firearmsdata and met with U.S. andMexican officials on both sides of the border.

What GAO Recommend

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GAO is making recommendationsto several departments, includingthe Departments of State,Homeland Security, and Justice, toimprove interagency coordination,data gathering and analysis, andstrategic planning. State and DHSagreed with our recommendations. Justice did not comment on ourrecommendations.

View GAO-09-709 or key components. For more information, contact Jess T. Ford at(202)512-4268 or fordj@gao.gov.