So, what do you think is easier and cheaper for the Cartels...

[gravity556]

Paying 5 to 10 thousand dollars for a Barrett rifle, or extorting/stealing one from the Mexican Army? They seem to have plenty of them lying about....




Of course, if a stolen M82 was siezed and traced, do you think that it would be used to pad the numbers of purported firearms coming from the US? I'll bet it would, particularly since the Mexican Army buys them from Barrett rifles through the US government...

As an aside, those poor bastards have gotta be hating life. That's a 32 pound rifle with a full magazine. Not something you want to carry around all fucking day.

[TheWraith]

1. Why ARE they carrying those?

Okay, yeah, it looks like a parade review. Still, why wouldn't they be carrying service rifles?

[PavePusher]

2. Looks like some SpecOps/Swat unit.

In the first photo, the third and subsequent rows look like the stocks on M-16's...

[gravity556]

3. You mean the same kind of M16s that regularly show up in cartel weapons caches?

Because I kind of agree...

[rl6214]

5. Yeah but you know they just picked those up at a gun show in Laredo!

[Kennah]

4. Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Aerom%C3%B3vil_de_Fuerzas_Especiales
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/mexico/army-orbat-gafe.htm

This appears to be the beret pin in the OP pics.

[PavePusher]

7. Interesting. I never looked into the Mexican SF's before...

as my AFSOC affiliation was mainly Europe and SW Asia. If they received their original training from France, as Wiki claims, then they probably have some good skills. And I'm sure they've worked with lots of other folks since then.

Thanks for the links!

[Tejas]

6. Ask any reporter, those are AK47's n/t