EP 464 Drug Cartels and Guns: A Deadly Combination

While we often think of the epidemic of gun violence as happening on the streets of America, it is even worse in the countries south of us in the Americas.  The source of the supply is the same, primarily United States gun manufacturers. How those guns start as legal products and become entwined with drug cartels and illegal sales is a fascinating, and little understood, story.  Yet it has an impact on illegal drug sales throughout the United States and often results in crises at the U.S-Mexico border.  Ioan Grillo chronicles the flow of firearms from the United States into Mexico for use by the gangs and cartels in his book ‘Blood Gun Money’.  He writes “America’s “iron river” of guns, millions of weapons that flow from the legal industry to the black market, feeding criminals across the nation and drug cartels across the continent…At the heart of the iron river is the relationship between guns and drugs’.  It is that disturbing relationship we explore with him on this podcast. You must hear what he tells us separates what happens on our streets in the U.S. from what happens south of the border, where over 2 million people have died in this gun infested, drug fueled environment since the beginning of the century.  

Podcast: Play in new window | Download