New accord aims to stop gun smuggling

DALLAS, June 11 (UPI) -- Customs officials from the United States and Mexico unveiled a plan to stem the cross-border flow of weapons that end up in the hands of Mexican drug dealers.

Called Armas Cruzadas, the operation is designed to disrupt smuggling through the sharing of databases and better monitoring of illicit sales at gun shops and gun shows, The Dallas Morning News reports Wednesday.

Officials say the cooperative effort will give Mexican law enforcement greater access to eTrace computer databases that use serial numbers to trace weapons from Mexican crimes to gun dealers in the United States.

"Right now, we know Texas is the No. 1 source of weapons smuggled into Mexico, with most of them coming from Houston and Dallas," Dewey Webb, special agent-in-charge of the Houston office of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the Morning News.

Webb says the guns are bought by "straw purchasers" who act as buyers for drug cartels.