Mexico arrests three, seizes 210 firearms smuggled from Texas

Seizure pushes Sheinbaum-era firearms total past 30,000

Mexican federal agents arrested three people and seized 210 firearms smuggled from Texas during a Monday highway operation in Nuevo León state, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said. The seizure near Sabinas Hidalgo, carried out on the Nuevo Laredo–Monterrey highway, pushed the cumulative count of weapons confiscated under President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration past 30,000.

Agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) carried out the operation in coordination with the Defense Ministry, the Navy, the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection (SSPC), and the National Guard, according to Animal Político. UNO TV reported the weapons were of large caliber.

García Harfuch announced the arrests on social media, saying the three suspects were transporting the weapons from Texas for delivery to criminal groups. The confiscated arsenal included 195 long guns, 15 handguns, and ammunition magazines, he said.

The security secretary framed the operation as part of what Mexican officials call “shared responsibility” between Mexico and the United States on security matters. “Shared responsibility demands stopping the trafficking of drugs toward the United States, but also stopping, with the same firmness, the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico,” he said.

García Harfuch wrote that the operation stemmed from intelligence and investigative work aimed at identifying and dismantling smuggling routes. He said more than 30,000 firearms have now been confiscated during Sheinbaum’s government, without specifying a time frame for the tally.

The Mexican bust comes weeks after U.S. authorities announced charges against a separate weapons-trafficking network that supplied a Mexican criminal organization. On Aug. 4, federal prosecutor Timothy Courchaine and Phoenix-based Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Albert Gibes said 21 people had been arrested in connection with the network, according to Animal Político.

U.S. officials said the network used straw buyers to purchase firearms legally from licensed gun dealers across Arizona, spreading the purchases among multiple stores in Maricopa County and elsewhere to avoid detection. Investigators traced weapons recovered at crime scenes to establish links between cases, officials said.

Gibes said the investigation targeted people exploiting legal firearms sales for criminal purposes, not the purchases themselves. All 21 people named in arrest warrants were taken into custody, he said. The investigation involved the Homeland Security Task Force, ATF, Homeland Security Investigations, the Border Patrol, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the IRS Criminal Investigation division, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Mexican authorities, according to Animal Político.

Courchaine said most licensed firearms dealers cooperate with such investigations by maintaining sales records and conducting background checks, while acknowledging that some dealers have been implicated in irregularities.