Bombshell Report Finds Mexico’s Government Supplying Cartels With U.S.-Made Guns

Mexico’s cartel violence has long been blamed on “iron-river” gun smuggling from the United States.

But a new on-air investigation flips that script – and it isn’t subtle.

In her Full Measure segment “Mexico Misfire,” journalist Sharyl Attkisson reports that many U.S.-made guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes were first sold – legally – to Mexico’s own government. 

A former ATF agent backs it up with years of tracing data.

It’s a jaw-dropper because it undercuts a decade of talking points. And it raises ugly questions about U.S. export policy, Mexico’s end-use controls, and who’s really responsible when cartel guns surface in the streets.

The Narrative Upended: Attkisson’s Findings

On television, Sharyl Attkisson lays out the core claim: “The vast majority of crime guns recovered in Mexico are purchased directly by the Mexican government.” 

She attributes that to former ATF special agent John Dodson, who says tracing data told a very different story than the public narrative suggested.

Attkisson notes Mexico’s gun murder toll – over 21,700 in 2022 – and the frequent claim that U.S. civilian gun markets are to blame.

Dodson says he believed that, too – until he queried ATF’s tracing system and saw where many of those guns really started.

Dodson’s account isn’t vague. He says he raised this inside ATF since 2009, took it up his chain of command, and even briefed a top DOJ official in Mexico City. 

His conclusion never changed: large volumes of U.S.-origin guns traced from cartel crime scenes were originally bought by the Mexican government, not trafficked by U.S. retail customers.

As a reporter who has covered the border and DOJ for years, Attkisson threads Dodson’s claims with public records: U.S. approved $147.7 million in small-arms sales to Mexico in 2023 from makers like SIG Sauer and Glock, plus additional shipments through Foreign Military Sales. That’s not a trickle; it’s policy.

What the Paper Trail Shows: Sales, Audits, and Diversion

Attkisson emphasizes that end-use monitoring is anemic. According to her report, the State Department audits less than 1% of foreign small-arms sales for diversion. Even that tiny sample returned a disturbing result years ago: a 2009 audit found 26% of checked arms were diverted to criminals.

She cites a WikiLeaks-released State Department cable demanding an accounting for a shipment of 1,030 AR-15-type rifles that had gone astray after purchase by the Mexican military. The diplomatic message is stark: Where are they now? The public record shows no reply on file.

Attkisson also points to tracing snapshots from 2016–2023. In those years, documents show the Mexican military listed as “dealer” for more than 2,000 U.S.-made firearms later found at crime scenes (2016–2021). 

A 2023 summary showed 779 U.S. guns traced from Mexican crime scenes that year were originally purchased by the Mexican government.

None of this absolves every smuggler on earth, but it upends the idea that the primary pipeline is American gun stores serving cartel straw buyers. The data Attkisson surfaces says: look at government-to-government flows and Mexico’s own controls.

Old Ghosts: “Fast and Furious” and a Whistleblower’s Alarm

Dodson’s credibility in this space isn’t abstract. He was a whistleblower in the ATF’s “Fast and Furious” scandal, where U.S. agents infamously allowed thousands of guns to “walk” to cartel buyers. 

One of those guns was tied to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, a moment that forced the operation into public view.

In Full Measure, Dodson reiterates that he flagged the Mexico-government sourcing problem long before the Fast and Furious revelations finished ricocheting through Washington. 

His point is not just historical – it’s that nothing meaningful changed about how the U.S. sells guns to Mexico or how Mexico accounts for them afterward.

If you remember the official line from that era – blame “bad apple” gun dealers – Dodson’s tracing story hits differently.

Multiple dealers actually objected to suspicious sales during Fast and Furious, only to be told to proceed. That history matters when we’re told the industry is the root of cartel armament.

The Cam & Co Conversation: Mexico’s Lawsuit Collapses, Questions Don’t

On Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, host Cam Edwards and Armed American Radio’s Mark Walters connect Attkisson’s reporting to recent legal and political moves.

Edwards notes Mexico’s $10 billion civil suit against U.S. gun makers – unanimously tossed by the U.S. Supreme Court. He highlights Attkisson’s column that Mexico omitted a crucial fact in its allegations: the Mexican government itself is the top original buyer of many U.S.-made guns later recovered at crime scenes.

Mark Walters goes further, arguing the public was gaslit while the truth simmered beneath the surface. He cites estimates discussed on air – “roughly 80%” of U.S.-made crime guns in Mexico originally purchased by the Mexican government – squarely attributing that claim to the Attkisson-sparked discussion and his read of the tracing snapshots. 

Walters’ rhetoric is sharp: he accuses gun-control advocates and sympathetic officials of burying inconvenient facts while suing U.S. manufacturers.

Edwards adds some telling color: Mexico didn’t sue SIG Sauer, which – per Attkisson – had major contracts with Mexico. That carve-out, he suggests, felt politically convenient, not principled.

The pair also revive a hard question: If the U.S. government knows diversion risk is high, why do exports continue? Edwards reminds listeners that Washington has tightened exports to some countries out of diversion concerns – but not Mexico. 

Walters’ “knee-jerk” answer is to cut off sales unless and until real accountability and inventory control appear. His pragmatic answer, though, is that shared borders require shared solutions – starting with transparent truth-telling.

The Policy Reality: Stop Pretending, Start Auditing

Here’s where the rubber meets the road:

• End-Use Monitoring: Auditing <1% of shipments is performative. Crank that to real sampling with serial-number spot checks, unannounced depot inspections, and public reporting of diversion rates by agency and state.
• Conditionality: Make new export licenses contingent on clean audits of past deliveries. Miss rifles? Suspend licenses, no exceptions.
• Trace-Back Deadlines: When a traced crime gun is identified as government-purchased, require a 30-day accounting: which unit, what inventory ledger, who had custody, how it left.
• Criminal Liability in Mexico: If a state or municipal buyer “loses” guns repeatedly, impose domestic penalties for diversion and publicize the findings to disincentivize corruption.
• U.S. Transparency: Publish annual diversion dashboards: total U.S. small-arms sold to Mexico by program; audit rates; diversion percentages; corrective actions.

None of this requires smearing the U.S. civilian market or scapegoating mom-and-pop FFLs. It simply treats exports like serious instruments of policy rather than off-the-books favors. 

If Mexico wants the gear, Mexico must secure the gear – and show its work.

What Accountability Would Actually Look Like

Congress doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. It needs to enforce the wheel that already exists.

• Mandate GAO Reviews of State/DoD end-use checks for Mexico’s small-arms purchases since 2009. Summarize diversion rates, missing-weapon counts, and unit-level patterns.
• Tie Funding to Fixes. If a Mexican federal or state agency can’t account for rifles from prior shipments, pause new licenses until they do.
• Codify Rapid Tracing Cooperation. ATF and Mexico should run joint trace teams with shared timelines for every government-sourced crime gun.
• Protect Whistleblowers. People like John Dodson should not have to choose between their badge and the truth to get policymakers to listen.

And yes – stop suing U.S. gun makers for crimes born of foreign government diversion. If a factory shipped to a sovereign buyer under U.S. export rules, and that buyer lost control, sue the buyer or fix the buyer. Don’t invert responsibility to score headlines.

The Data Doesn’t Care About Narratives

The picture painted by Sharyl Attkisson and John Dodson is specific, document-driven, and frankly devastating to the “it’s all U.S. retail” storyline. Cam Edwards and Mark Walters press the obvious questions: Who knew? Who hid? What now?

Here’s the uncomfortable middle ground. Some U.S. guns are surely smuggled retail-to-cartel – that happens.

But pretending that’s the main river while ignoring government-to-government flows is how you get more funerals and fewer fixes.

If Washington keeps licensing without serious auditing, and Mexico keeps buying without serious accounting, the cartels won’t care which narrative wins on cable news. They’ll keep getting guns.

Sharyl Attkisson’s broadcast puts a simple fact on the table: a stunning share of U.S.-made guns in Mexican cartel crimes were first sold to the Mexican government. 

John Dodson says he’s watched that pattern for 16 years. Cam Edwards and Mark Walters argue it detonates the blame-the-U.S.-industry playbook and demands policy, not platitudes.

Fixes are obvious: audit more, condition sales, publish diversion rates, and hold Mexican agencies to account.

If we won’t do those basic things, we’re not serious about stopping cartel firepower—we’re just serious about our favorite talking points.

UP NEXT: “Heavily Armed” — See Which States Are The Most Strapped

Americans have long debated the role of firearms, but one thing is sure — some states are far more armed than others.

See where your state ranks in this new report on firearm ownership across the U.S.