Unsecured U.S. Borders Benefit Arms Smugglers
December 17, 2024
Michael McManus
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a wide remit, including detecting illegal aliens, preventing counterfeit goods, and even preventing wildlife crime. CBP is also tasked with preventing the illegal trade in firearms. The abundance of firearms in the U.S. makes the country an appealing source for those who wish to smuggle weaponry into their home countries.
The Biden-Harris border crisis has seen CBP officers overworked and stretched thin as they process endless waves of illegal aliens. This has seriously eaten into the ability of CBP to stop illegal firearms trafficking, and criminal actors throughout the Americas have taken note and taken advantage of it. CBP data show that between Fiscal Years 2022 and 2024, there was a 400 percent increase in long guns being intercepted as bad actors attempted to take them out of the U.S. and into another country. This has impacted several countries.
In Haiti, 80 percent of the weapons seized were linked back to the U.S., with straw purchases by U.S.-based Haitian migrants being a common way of obtaining guns. In February 2024, Florida-based Haitian national Jocelyn Dor was sentenced to 60 months in prison for her role in smuggling guns to a gang in Haiti responsible (among other things) for kidnapping U.S. citizens. In June 2024, Haitian gang member Joly Germine was sentenced to 35 years in jail, and his partner was sentenced to 150 months in prison for their roles in violating export controls to send guns to Haiti. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that certain firearms for sale in the U.S. at $400 could be sold to gangs in Haiti for up to $10,000. That is a huge markup.
https://www.fairus.org/blog/2024/12/17/unsecured-us-borders-benefit-arms-smugglers
