Mexican Gov. Authorties wouldn't release any ser. nr's. from these hundreds of weapons!

El Universal (Mexico City) Sunday 8/15/10
So far this year, Mexican Customs has intercepted merely 150 firearms, compared to the thousands the Mexican military has seized in combat against organized crime groups. Jose Bravo Moises, a leading official in the Customs service, explains that it is because the operations of his agency discourage trafficking through ports of entry. He recognizes that arms can cross by other means such as through the ample unguarded areas along the border and by air and sea.

Nonetheless, a special legislative commission overseeing Customs revealed in a meeting with the agency’s head that they paid 100 pesos [$7.86] to bring a firearm from Guatemala into Mexico. “One came in and they didn’t check anything in that Customs office, a serious problem for the traffic of arms the country suffers, for the thousands of deaths and the violence that no one stops,” said Representative Hector Pedroza Jimenez.

The Customs official rejected that the traffic of arms takes place through the Customs inspection points or that there exists corruption in the agency because as soon as any irregularity is detected, it is investigated. “We haven’t detected direct collusion, but we are constantly looking,” he said.

To read the complete article, click here:
El Universal,com

German factory investigated for supposed sale of arms to Mexico
La Jornada (Mexico City) 8/15/10

Berlin – German authorities opened a proceeding against the Heckler & Kochel arms factory for the presumed offense of illegal exportation of arms in 2006 to Mexican states with violent internal conflicts, according to the weekly edition of Der Spiegel. The investigation, led by the government attorney’s office and German Customs, is to determine if the factory violated the prohibition, in force in the country, to sell arms in zones of conflict. According to information, in 2006 the factory received official permission to sell “different Mexican national police” thousands of G36 assault rifles, the customary German Army weapon. The authorization supposedly excluded the areas of conflict such as the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Jalisco. A year later, Heckler & Koch solicited another permit, this time to supply parts for those rifles “to clients with an established address” in those states. The investigation is in its initial stage.

To read the complete article, click here:
La Jornada (Mexico City)

I have sat on this presentation for sometime awaiting the nod to go ahead and post while the file leaked into the private domain. Early this morning I received to go-ahead from the provider to post, so here it is, in part.

I’ve included only those sections of this power-point presentation that gives useful information to LE and concerned citizen. I’ve excised those portions showing gratuitous blood and violence.

I do not pretend to be an expert on any of the following—rather an informed and concerned citizen.

In addition to the remarks made in the presentation I note the following:

1. This attack appears well planned and executed.

2. Note that the attackers appeared not to hesitate to take out (Kill) the driver of the large white bus—a non-involved civilian. (Several passengers were also killed and several more were wounded.)

3. Rifle stocks—these homemade stocks are most likely added after the weapons user discovered just how difficult it was to fire and control an AK while holding it only by the pistol grip. This is a recurring phenomenon around the world among those who have seen too many movies—removed the butt-stock to look cool and then been engaged in a fire fight and discovered just how difficult it is to fire with any accuracy without a rifle stock.

4. Almost none of the weapons shown are available on the legitimate US market, as all were fully automatic—giving the lie to the Obama Administrations mantra that these weapons are being smuggled into Mexico via the US. Mexican Border. Mexican authorities rarely release the serial numbers or manufacture data from these weapons, as to do so would prove that the weapons never came into the US. Rather they arrived in Mexico via Belize, having first stopped in Havana and/or Caracas.

5. Of course the key to any firefight is superior firepower, the ability to concentrate that firepower, cover/concealment and the ability to maneuver. All of which should be timed, concentrated and disciplined. The battle damage to the various magazines is an indication of all of the above—as is the indication that all of the targets were engaged at distance from places of cover and concealment.

6. Last but certainly not least is the ability to change-out, and charge (Load to the novice) magazines under fire is critical and probably lead to at least one of the deaths pictured below. (A training program that I have both participated in and observed over the years goes something like this: run the student in full kit a mile then through a patch of water at least calf high, then low-crawl them for 20 to 40 meters. Then have them address the firing course during which they will be presented with a magazine that will present the student with a stoppage issue. Finally have the student hand load one round at a time at the end of all of the above and fire through it.)

7. The above drill should be practiced (With variation) at least once every two months.

To view the power-point presentation, click here:
Nuevo_Laredo_Cartel_Gun_Battle_7-16-2010

Again, some of the photos are bloody and well just disgusting, not for viewing if you are under the age of 18.

AR 15, 5.56 caliber rifle, Manufactured in Arizona

One of the first impressions that I acquired upon my reengagement with PPD retirees after a 30 year (+) hiatus, was the speed at which most retirees would proudly announce to me how much their retirement check was.

Now to be sure, they would never give the exact amount but usually give the listener the basics to figure out an approximate range—providing the listener was so inclined—I wasn’t then and that’s not changed.

A couple of weeks ago on a certain law enforcement chat-room as it were, while in a discussion on a certain subject one of the participants posted their five digit tax payment from last year. Intentionally or unintentionally it was a way of bragging about his income. Good for him, as a proud Capitalists I always enjoy hearing of someone’s financial success.

Now to my challenge: I retired as a Police Officer in 1980—not much of an income—don’t misunderstand I’m glad for it but it’s small—that’s it end of statement, except for this.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office needs to upgrade—and upgrade rapidly to modern firearms so as to meet—or at least attempt to meet the challenge posed by the ever increasing aggressiveness and hostility of the illegal traffickers that are invading their precincts. The county’s resources are stretched thin-very thin and it will take forever to acquire the numbers needed.

To that end, beginning September 1st I will donate $1,000.00 a month for the next six months to the Pinal County Justice Foundation, Inc. for the purchase of upgraded weapons. I will scan a copy of the Cashiers Check and post it each month so that the reader can visualize that I put my money where my mouth is.

So what are you going to do?

How much will you donate each month?

I will gladly post copies of any checks that any readers would like me to post.

Common how much will you donate each month?

Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy

The Pinal County Justice Foundation, Inc. is a volunteer organization dedicated to raise and disburse funds for programs that assist Pinal County law enforcement.

The Pinal County Justice Foundation is a registered non-profit 501(c)3 organization and is funded by donations from our citizens, corporations and by grants.

The Sheriff’s Office is unable to accept donations of used weapons, as they have not been tested and must meet regulation and uniformity guidelines for Deputy’s use.

If you would like to donate towards this effort you can do so either online using the item code 2-C-1 or you can mail your donation to:

Pinal County Justice Foundation, Inc.
6832 S. Kings Ranch Road #2-16
Gold Canyon, Arizona 85218

Your donation is a tax deductible contribution. Please make all checks to: Pinal County Justice Foundation, with Deputy Rifles written on the Memo line.

To view the Pinal County justice Foundation, Inc. web-page, click here:
Pinal County Justice Foundation

Not long ago, the New York Times carried an article that revealed one of law enforcement’s deepest, darkest secrets. Though most agencies are loathe to admit it (and some do not even track it), the vast majority of the bullets police officers fire in the line of duty miss their intended target.

I was not surprised to find striking similarity in the results reported by Los Angeles on the left coast and New York City on the right. I found almost identical numbers ten years ago when analyzing the shooting results of a large mid-western agency. And to prove that the situation is apparently little changed from a hundred years ago, consider this Theodore Roosevelt quote from when he was the New York City Police Commissioner: “It is wonderful, in the event of a street fight, how few bullets seem to hit the men they are aimed at.”

How bad is it? Well, both NYPD and LAPD give hit-rates that hover around 30 percent. In the article, New York claimed a 34 percent hit rate, while LA listed a 31 percent hit rate last year. But, upon a closer read, you will find that even these low numbers misstate the real facts. You see, these 30 percent hit rates include shots fired at dogs, cars, and even police suicides, which tragically run about 100 percent hits. During 1999 in New York, only 13 percent of the bullets fired during police gunfights struck home. During 2006, NYPD’s gunfight hit rate was a much better 30 percent, but we don’t have enough information to know if this was a maintainable improvement or just a statistical variation.

So, even when we take the best “spin” on the best numbers, about 70 percent of the bullets police officers fire strike something they didn’t want to shoot. Luckily, there is an awful lot of stuff in our jurisdictions that can catch errant bullets with minimal bad consequences. While NYPD no longer tabulates information on things unintentionally shot, in 1996 five innocent bystanders were wounded there by police gunfire.

Realistically, we cannot expect street officers armed with handguns to approach the sniper’s goal of “one shot, one kill.” But, when you consider that the average distance of a police gunfight is well under 7 yards, often less than 10 feet, we must ask ourselves what the hell is going on?
I’d be willing to bet most of these officers could easily hit a man-sized target 100 percent of the time at 10 feet on the firing range. The answer is both simple and complex. The difference between the 100 percent hit-rate on the training range and the 13 percent gunfight hit-rate can be boiled down to one easy statement: Nobody’s shooting at you on the training range…

Correct! In a real gunfight, you are only going to be about half as good as you are on your best day on the training range, simply from the stress of a lethal encounter.

This means that if you shoot a hand size group to the thoracic cavity, it will grow in a real gunfight to at least twice as large a group. If you are barely qualifying with a 70% score, in a real gunfight, you are going to drop to less than 35% which means you are going to miss the majority of your shots at the person who is trying to kill you.

And don’t think that the 13 hits out of 100 rounds fired from law enforcement officers in lethal confrontations are fight-stopping “center hits.” Most of the 13 are peripheral hits in the arms or below the waist due to the officers not focusing on the front sight and mashing the hell out of the trigger.

YOU BETTER TRAIN FOR PERFECTION so when you are fighting for your life, and you aren’t quite as good as you were on the shooting range last week, you are still good enough to win the gunfight.

Richard Fairburn

Dick Fairburn has more than 26 years of law enforcement experience in Illinois and Wyoming. He has worked patrol, investigations and administration assignments. Dick has also served as a criminal intelligence analyst, and as the section chief of a major academy’s Firearms Training Unit and Critical Incident Training program. He has a B.S. in Law Enforcement Administration from Western Illinois University and was the valedictorian of his recruit class at the Illinois State Police Academy. He has published hundreds of articles and a book titled, Police Rifles.

Be it understood, I do not—I repeat; I do not claim to be any type of firearm or military combat tactics expert. The views that I express are those of a reasonably informed novice—whose knowledge of the events surrounding these photographs is limited to what I can see in them.

I note the following:

Though it is unclear to me exactly where this ambush occurred (Arizona or Sonora Mexico?), of the licence plates that are visable, all are Mexican, except for picture number# 23 the red Dodge has Arizona plates .

Saguaros Cacti are found exclusively in the Sonoran Desert, they grow nowhere else in the world. You find this cactus in southern Arizona and north western Sonora, Mexico. There are Saguaro Cacti in some of these pictures—ergo this slaughter occurred either in Southern Arizona or North-Western Mexico.

This two lane road appears to be in hilly country—with cuts through some of the ridge shoulders. I think that the lead vehicle was the Silver VW then the red pick-up followed by the white Chevrolet SUV, the others just stacked up behind them.

The road appears to curve just ahead of the red pick-up which makes this a good place to place an ambush.

The entire length of the ambush appears to be over 100 yards long which tells me that there were a large number of ambushers.

If one looks closely in the photographs one can see empty magazines and spent cartarige casings lying just about everywhere. This indicates to me that the affair lasted some minutes but not much longer than a few I would think.

In one photo there is a black bag with some small boxes or—something that I can’t quite make out—these may be mini-grenades of some type, perhaps still in their boxes.

I note one clown is without boots and I note a pair of boots lying on the road in the rear of one vehicle. That might indicate that the convoy wasn’t anticipating trouble—at the very least that guy wasn’t.

Some of the vehicles have extensive bullet damage which I would tend to think indicates that there were passengers in the vehicle when this fracas started. The vehicles without extensive damage were the ones where the occupants (with or without shoes) were able to deploy before they were killed.

The cuts through the ridge shoulders make a good “kill-zone” or “kill-box” as it restricts the occupant’s ability to maneuver which is their only hope for survival. Hiding under a vehicle only allows one to die in the shade—which several of them did.

The fellows in the darker clothing were I think some of the ambushers. (Just because you ambush someone that doesn’t automatically mean that they won’t shoot back, wounding and/or killing some of those of the ambushing party.)

The two clowns pictured (Both appear to be hand-cuffed) —I just don’t know—perhaps they ran away and escaped the carnage then were later caught by the Mexican police. (There is at least one [partial] Mexican Police vehicle pictured.)

From the photos it appears that this ambush was well selected and the ambush its self well executed.

It appears that one or two of the ambushees may have tried to surrender (Perhaps ran out of ammo (?), alas it did them litltle good as the head shot photos with the victim lying on the ground with arms outstretched depict.)

It also appears that many, if not most, if not all were stripped of their magazines and that there wallets and personal belonging were taken as well as I noted none of the dead were wearing watches.

Topping the list of problems with the forgoing is this: Our police, Sheriffs and DPS Officers are in no way prepared for this level of violence, death and destruction which lay only a few heartbeats, a few breaths, one or two blinks of our eyes from our front doors.

We are quickly running out of time—on this illegal-trafficking issue. We need to get something positive done and quickly or we will see this on the highways and byways of Arizona. It is unknown how many ambushers and ambushes were involved. It is also unknown how many ambushes might have escaped. One last warning the pictures that follow are graphic and might be disturbing to some: