Mexican Federal Police arrest female, confiscate Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun

The Mexican federal police said today they arrested a woman guarding an arsenal of weapons belonging to the Beltran Leyva Cartel. Among the weapons siezed was a powerful Browning.50 caliber anti-aircraft gun mounted on top of a pick-up truck.

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The powerful machine gun, the first of its kind seized in Mexico, is used by armed forces around the world and is capable of firing 800 shots per minute at a range of 1500 meters and penetrating all types of armour.

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Twenty-year-old Anahi Beltran was arrested with another 30mm caliber Browning machine gun, five rifles, a grenade launcher, a hand grenade and scores of chargers, cartridges, three vehicles and 750 grams of cocaine. Police on a routine patrol Monday found the gun fitted atop an SUV at a house in the municipality of Santa Ana in northern Sonora, which borders Arizona.

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"Very powerful (seized machine gun) used only by armed forces from

any country, a Browning calibre 50 machine gun which was mounted on a metallic post, on top of a Ford Lobo pick-up (series) 150,"

-federal public security ministry, Gen. Rodolfo Cruz

The arsenal belonged to a group linked to the powerful Beltran-Leyva drug cartel. The arrested suspect, Anahi Beltran Cabrera, apparently is not related to the Beltran-Leyva clan, Cruz said.

Mexican drug cartels, retaliating against a fierce crackdown by Mexican Army soldiers and federal police, have increasingly gotten hold of higher-powered weapons, even military-grade arms such as grenades, assault rifles, and machine guns. The Cartels' have left police, particularly state and municipal forces, grossly outgunned, and many officers have quit and attempted to relocate following gruesome attacks.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has traced many guns seized at scenes of drug violence in Mexico to U.S. commercial sources. But determining the source of military-grade weapons such as grenades and fully automatic machine guns is more complicated.

The ATF says the grenades are mostly smuggled in through Central America, and have been traced back to the militaries of many countries, from South Korea to Spain and Israel. Some may be leftovers from the Central American civil wars.

-Dayton Daily

Cartels have fired on government aircraft performing anti-drug missions in Mexico in the past, but apparently never with the caliber of weapon found Monday.

In 2006, a helicopter on a federal drug-eradication mission crashed while trying to escape ground fire, and a second helicopter was damaged by gunfire in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.

Mexico, for it's part, is upgrading its northern and southern border checkpoints in an effort to detect and seize more guns and other contraband, installing equipment that will weigh and photograph each car and truck coming into the country.