Posted on 07/17/2010 3:45:37 PM PDT by Qbert
MEXICO CITY -- Grenades made in the United States and sent to Central America during the Cold War have resurfaced as terrifying new weapons in almost weekly attacks by Mexican drug cartels.
Sent a generation ago to battle communist revolutionaries in the jungles of Central America, U.S. grenades are being diverted from dusty old armories and sold to criminal mafias, who are using them to destabilize the Mexican government and terrorize civilians, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials.
The redeployment of U.S.-made grenades by Mexican drug lords underscores the increasingly intertwined nature of the conflict, as President Felipe Calderón sends his soldiers out to confront gangs armed with a deadly combination of brand-new military-style assault rifles purchased in the United States and munitions left over from the Cold War.
Grenades have killed a relatively small number of the 25,000 people who have died since Calderón launched his U.S.-backed offensive against the cartels. But the grenades pack a far greater psychological punch than the ubiquitous AK-47s and AR-15 rifles -- they can overwhelm and intimidate outgunned soldiers and police while reminding ordinary Mexicans that the country is literally at war.
There have been more than 72 grenade attacks in Mexico in the last year, including spectacular assaults on police convoys and public officials. Mexican forces have seized more than 5,800 live grenades since 2007, a small fraction of a vast armory maintained by the drug cartels, officials said.
According to the Mexican attorney general's office, there have been 101 grenade attacks against government buildings in the past 3 1/2 years, information now made public for the first time.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
(Note: there are some factual errors in the article, if you're interested):
http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/303720.php
Damn those Gringo Gun Laws, it’s all their fault................/S
Does this mean the grenade grabbers will start screaming to close the Military Surplus Grenade Show loophole??
According to the left & the MSM, (but I repeat myself), state that they are getting grenades from this side of the border, where do I get mine?
Obviously the Government needs to enact stricter licensing requirements of grenade sellers. :)
I don’t claim to be an expert on the shelf-life of hand grenades, buuut I’d be a little wary of using surplus grenades that might not have been brand spanking new when they were given to [insert Central American nation here] 20+ years ago.
I also kind of wonder how many of those “sold in the USA” rifles might actually be coming from those same dusty old armories? We certainly have sold/donated plenty of M16’s, etc. to Mexico and other Latin American nations over the years.
Those cold war grenades are real killers.
Roger That! If you find out let me know. I can’t throw one as far as I could 40 years ago but I haven’t forgot how its done.
Damn gun show loophole!!!
At minimum there are Three Mosques in Southern Mexico at this point.. Madrassas teaching Jihad to poor Mexican Peasants. it appears at least some of their lessons are beginning to bear fruit.
“We have to give people a path to citizenship, a way that they can become citizens,’’ said McCain,
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/john_mccain_immigration_reform.html
W
Reagan’s Fault!
Oliver North’s Fault!
According to the article, Mexican drug gangs are stealing grenades from S & Central American government armories but are still smuggling semi-auto rifles from the US.
How stupid are these Mexican drug gangs? They already have access to armories full of weapons. Why don’t they steal the fully automatic AKs and M16s sitting next to the boxes of grenades? Why go to all the trouble to buy rifles from American gun shops and smuggle them across the border?
Mexican drug gangs are DUMB! ;)
...no mention of the M-16s floating around south of the border that came from North Vietnam...we know that because captured Sandinista M-16s had serial numbers from the Vietnam war.
These are grenades the US sold to the Mexican government decades ago that were in local Mexican police and military depots. Now, corrupt Mexican police or soldiers are stealing them and selling them to the drug gangs. So, it’s still our (USA) fault according to this leftist newspaper writer. Or, blame it on Bush!
No grenades for sale at the last several gun shows I have gone to. What puts me off about buying them is the $200 license fee for each one. The feds insist they are “destructive devices”. So, anyone in the MSM who reads this should correct any misreporting was to were these grenades are coming from. Because of the taxes and the heavy regulation, they are not sold at gun shows. In fact, grenades in the US are regulated like pistols are in NYC: you must have a permit, but we are not giving any permits out.
I’m sure they got those grenades from Walmart or a gun-show.
Not.
These are coming out of government arsenals in Central and South America - probably sold by said governments (I’d say “corrupt elements within those same governments” but that’s pretty much all of them...). So being “American-made” is irrelevant.
“At minimum there are Three Mosques in Southern Mexico at this point.. Madrassas teaching Jihad to poor Mexican Peasants. it appears at least some of their lessons are beginning to bear fruit.”
So that’s where the car bombing idea originated. Hope to God that stuff doesn’t start spilling across the border big time- we saw how effective Clownitano was in detecting the NYC bombing attempt- and that was in a Blue state where they have an interest in protecting people...
Yeah, if you're a liberal with an agenda and no scruples you can stretch things far enough to make a connection to the U.S. out of that. By all means let's not blame the nations whose armories were sacked for losing custody of those arms.
“Because of the taxes and the heavy regulation, they are not sold at gun shows. In fact, grenades in the US are regulated like pistols are in NYC: you must have a permit, but we are not giving any permits out.”
Thanks for the info- good to know to counter all the media distortions.
That’s it. I running down to Big 5 and buying a case of ‘em while I still can.
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