Mexico.- The governments of Mexico and the United States pledged to strengthen the fight against illicit arms trafficking from the United States to Mexico as part of a strategy to reduce cross-border crime.
This was highlighted by senior officials during the installation of the Binational Group against Arms Trafficking of the Bicentennial Understanding, in the Mexican Foreign Ministry in which the ambassador of United States in Mexico, Ken Salazar and Security representative of the Mexican government.
According to what was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the central objective “is to increase the confiscations of weapons and ammunition, on both sides of the border, destined to be sold illegally in Mexican territory and to bring illegal arms traffickers in both countries to justice.”
Among other agreements reached, it was highlighted to streamline the prosecution of cases, increase extraditions to both countries, strengthen mirror operations on the common border, as well as work together to modernize border inspection technology and exchange intelligence information.
In this sense, the ambassador, Ken Salazar, highlighted that through this cooperation it will be sought that; “Those who traffic arms are going to pay in both countries.”
For his part, the Undersecretary of Security, Ricardo Mejía Bedeja, pointed out that, “The instruction we have from Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez is that we send a simple message: arms traffickers will face higher costs for their illicit actions in Mexico and the United States.”
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Similarly, the Head of Unit for North America, Roberto Velasco, speaking on behalf of Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, stressed that the objective of binational cooperation follows a clear metric, such as the number of weapons confiscated, especially of high caliber, has to increase significantly in the two countries.
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