U.S. border czar confronts disturbing Mexico discovery It's something for border czar to worry about

Strongest gun yet seized from cartel by Mexican authorities

On the very day President Barack Obama appointed former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin as a border czar to combat drug cartels, Mexican police announced they confiscated a U.S.-made machine gun that could penetrate steel from a mile away, likely the most destructive weapon of its type ever seized in Mexico.

Together, the two moves signal the ever increasing strength of cartel warfare — and the task ahead for the U.S. and Mexican governments.

The discovery of the .50-caliber Browning machine gun, which Mexican authorities said was mounted in the bed of a pickup and has a rate of fire of 800 rounds a minute, also came just days before Obama’s first trip to Mexico.

The White House is promising cooperation with Mexico, and both Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, are under pressure to slow the drug running, gun smuggling and violence that threatens Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Bersin, of San Diego, will coordinate American policy on immigration, guns, drugs and bulk cash shipments into Mexico, a Department of Homeland Security official told the Houston Chronicle.

The discovery of the weapon in the northern Mexico state of Sonora serves notice that cartels are ready for all-out war. Mexican authorities have not yet said how it got into the country.

The gun, which fires rounds nearly 6 inches long, was discovered by federal police on routine patrol when they spotted the truck parked outside a house. A woman was arrested at the scene, and police said the Browning, part of a grenade launcher and other weaponry have been linked to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

The Beltran Leyva group is one of Mexico’s older syndicates, and operates with a lower profile than the Gulf or Sinaloa cartels, which often grab headlines.

Gun’s source unknown

Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s former chief of international operations, said the weapon is capable of “a massacre … they were probably waiting for a major offensive.”

Vigil suspected the weapon belonged to the Mexican military, but was obtained by corrupting military officers.

The issue of U.S.-made weapons ending up in the hands of cartels has gained attention in recent months and is expected to be part of the discussion between Obama and Calderon.

Mexican government officials have said repeatedly that if the U.S. government wants them to curb the northward flow of drugs, America will have to curb the southward flow of weapons.

Federal blitz planned

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as Texas firearms dealers, say the big gun could have taken many paths to the drug traffickers, including having been bought on the military black market.

“Saying it is rare would be correct,” ATF spokeswoman Franceska Perot said. “This is a high-powered weapon.”

The gun could be used to shoot down an aircraft if mounted correctly, but it is made for use against personnel or vehicles, Perot said.

Federal gun agents are planning to blitz Houston and the southern half of Texas starting later this month with a temporary army of 100 additional inspectors and investigators aimed at rooting out weapons traffickers.

That force is scheduled to be permanently beefed up later this year by other agents, some of whom are currently in the ATF academy.

Perot said the coming move will bolster current investigations as well as tear into a backlog of some 700 U.S.-purchased weapons confiscated in Mexico after being used by drug cartel gunmen.

Staff writers Dudley Althaus from Mexico City and Stewart Powell from Washington contributed to this report.

dane.schiller@chron.com