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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Thomas Graham in Tijuana

Arizona’s guns are feeding the bloodshed in Mexico’s cartel war

Three men in military fatigues show two women guns on ground
Mexican military officers show Marina del Pilar, the Baja California governor, confiscated guns on 17 March 2026 in Tijuana, Mexico. Photograph: Carlos A Moreno/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

When war broke out within the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organisations, people hoped it would last just a few months.

But more than a year and a half later it is still going, fuelled by a flow of firearms from the US – specifically from Arizona, which has surged past Texas to become the top source of guns seized in Mexico and traced to a recent US purchase.

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