he Sinaloa drug cartel – one of the country’s largest and most powerful criminal organisations – took over the streets of the northern city of Culiacan with a devastating array of high powered weaponry.
From machine guns to AK-47 assault rifles, the rival gangs were armed to the teeth, despite strict gun controls, the weapons smuggled across the border from the United States.
About 70 percent of the guns seized in Mexico are traced back to the US.
Successive Mexican governments have asked the US to do more to stop the weapons flow. And those calls for action have grown louder because of the rising murder rate – already one of the highest worldwide.
But how is Mexico policing its border? And how is it dealing with those weapons once they are in the country?
Talk to Al Jazeera met an arms trafficker, a hitman, and the wife of a victim of gun violence, to get insight into the weapons crisis facing Mexico.
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