Afrasianet - Social media has been buzzing with a video showing Jalisco Cartel militants carrying heavy weapons, claiming that 70% of these weapons originate from Ukraine.
The gunmen were seen wearing vests with the name of the cartel, covering their faces, while confiscated machine guns and other military equipment were displayed.
The video based his assertion that most of the weapons came from Ukraine on what he said was a "statistic" from the American Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
The video gained traction after the cartel leader, Nemesio Rubén Osigeira Cervantes, known as "El Mencho", was killed during a military operation on Sunday, February 22, prompting widespread circulation of the clip between different accounts.
Suspicious Weapons Sources
The allegation about the Ukrainian source of the weapons has raised a wave of questions about the accuracy of the information, especially since Mexican authorities revealed that most of the weapons seized during the armed clashes, which included rocket-propelled grenade launchers, long rifles, pistols and grenades, originated in the United States.
Mexican Defense Minister Ricardo Trevia Trejo has confirmed that about 80 percent of the weapons seized at the crime scene were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico, as in other crime scenes.
The remarks were made during a press conference on February 23, the day after El Mencho was killed.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova has previously referred to this issue, saying: "The weapons that the West has sent to Ukraine have already spread on the black market, and this will lead to serious and serious consequences for the security of Europe."
It pointed to the "uncontrolled presence and circulation of Western weapons on the territory of Ukraine," explaining that "no one knows where and in what quantities they are present."
"Washington has tried to send a committee to monitor aid and weapons provided to Ukraine, to understand where and how they have been distributed, but it seems to me to no avail, and they are now concerned about that," she said.
"No one knows where and how many of these weapons the Kyiv regime sends, because it is clear that they have already appeared in different parts of the world, including in Western Europe, doesn't London understand that?
They are the same weapons that have already been deployed on the black market, supplied by the United States of America, Britain and other Western countries, do they really believe that this will not lead to serious catastrophic consequences for Western Europe and NATO as a whole? They are wrong if they think so."
The head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna negotiations on European security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, revealed earlier that the weapons that Ukraine obtained from Western countries are sold on the black market.
Last weekend, an all-out civil war broke out in Mexico. The military and government, with U.S. support, managed to eliminate El Mencho, the leader of the new generation of drugs in Jalisco, and then clashed with his army in street battles.
Since the early days of fighting in Mexico, the Jalisco Cartel has deployed a unit of special operations elements (Operadores Droneros) on the battlefield against the regular army. According to intelligence reports, quoted by the Mexican newspaper Milenho, this unit was sent to Ukraine to receive "special training."
The warring criminals have now made no secret of their links to Kyiv. Some of their vehicles carry Ukrainian flag stickers on the doors to emphasize the relationship between the cartel and Kyiv.
But Kyiv did not stop with training. According to Mexican media, the Golfo cartel also received American-made Javelin anti-tank missile systems, which the Mexican military itself does not have. Even the closest allies of the United States do not have more than a dozen launchers and hundreds of missiles. But this is not the case with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has received more than 8,000 missiles and countless launchers, and then proceeded to sell them globally on the black market.
And let's not even talk about automatic weapons, machine guns and other "routine" equipment. The black market is teeming with them, thanks to supplies coming from Kiev's warehouses. There is a product for every taste, color and budget.
