Mixture of guns, Mexican drug cartels yields violent results in U.S.

In a deadly shootout in October in Tijuana between Mexican soldiers and drug cartel suspects, out of 14 guns seized, five had been purchased in Las Vegas. One soldier and four suspects died in the drug raid.

I know, I know. Guns don't kill people; people kill people. But it's impossible to shoot someone without a gun.

Guns are being purchased legally and in bulk in Nevada, Texas and Arizona, where there is no waiting period, and ending up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels via straw buyers.

In one case prosecuted in Las Vegas, assault rifles were sold, where else, in the Circus Circus parking lot.

"It's happening in every Southwestern state. It's not a problem that's unique to Nevada, but Nevada's not immune either," U.S. Attorney Greg Brower said. "It's a bigger problem overall in the border states."

It must not be as bad here as say Texas, because, despite the Obama administration saying in March the trafficking in American guns to Mexican drug cartels is a priority, the administration is not sending additional resources to Nevada.

Houston, on the other hand, on Tuesday received an additional 100 people for its Gun Runner Impact Team (GRIT) for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (Guess I'll worry more whenever I hear Las Vegas has its own GRIT.)

Guns aren't the only sign the Mexican drug trade is alive and well in Las Vegas. Remember the kidnapping in October of 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger? He was missing for four days until he was left in a residential neighborhood.

Turns out his grandfather, Clemons Fred Tinnemeyer, and his girlfriend, Terri Leavy, were moving drugs and money between Mexico and the United States in a motor home, according to a federal indictment. And when they found $4 million in the motor home's hidden compartment, they decided to keep on trucking. Hence, the kidnapping of his grandson.

The grandfather and the girlfriend were charged with interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, but on Feb. 26, that indictment was merged into a sealed indictment. In other words, something's happening in that case.

Even before this recent push to crack down on narco-violence, every two weeks, officials with the U.S. attorney's office and the district attorney's office would review the gun-related arrests, usually between 20 and 30 arrests, and decide which should be prosecuted in the federal system, where the sentences tend to be longer, and which belong in the state system, Brower explained.

His office handled about 60 gun cases in 2008, accepting about five or 10 a month. He expects those numbers will increase this year as there is a greater emphasis on narco-violence involving Mexico.

Two gun cases related to the shootout in Tijuana involve a straw buyer and a gun transporter. ATF agents found a man named Juan Valdez bought five of the firearms seized in the Tijuana raid: four assault rifles and one sniper rifle. He began cooperating with officials and said Claudio Cesar Penunuri (aka Zorra) of Los Angeles provided him tens of thousands of dollars to buy weapons. Valdez, a U.S. citizen, said he had purchased more than $100,000 worth of weapons.

Valdez helped ATF set up a sting operation, and Uvaldo Salazar-Lopez, an illegal alien from Anaheim, Calif., was arrested Dec. 23 in the Circus Circus parking lot, picking up weapons from Valdez allegedly ordered by Penunuri.

Salazar-Lopez told ATF agents he was an illegal alien living in Anaheim when he was approached by his volleyball buddy Penunuri and asked to travel to Las Vegas and pick up guns here. Salazar-Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, although he was indicted for possession of four weapons. He will be sentenced June 30 on one count.

Penunuri goes on trial Aug. 3, accused of dealing in firearms without a license: 28 firearms to be exact. Salazar-Lopez was supposed to get $800 for picking up the guns. Now he's going to get time. Maybe not a lot of time, but time.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is calling the Mexican drug cartels the biggest organized crime threat in the United States, even if Americans don't yet realize it. Guns, drugs and kidnappings. Sounds like the Mafia, but it's not your godfather's mob any more.

Hola!

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison/.