From Sophia Khatsenkova (adapted from English) • Updated: 07/13/2023 – 21:39
Will weapons of war shipped to Ukraine end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels? Sophia Khatsenkova led the investigation for euronews. Spoilers: highly unlikely.
Do guns sent to Ukraine end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels? That’s what some Internet users say on social networks. But is it true?
It all started when a Mexican TV host tweeted this video, which said: “In the state of Tamaulipas, a suspected member of the Gulf Cartel was recorded carrying one of the most exclusive and powerful weapons, a ‘javelin’ used during the invasion of the Ukraine and whose value ranges from $20,000 to $60,000.”
Hundreds of Twitter users have claimed that weapons shipped by NATO have been sold on the black market to Mexican cartels and other criminal organizations around the world. These fears are also exploited by pro-Kremlin accounts.
However, these claims contain many misleading elements.
It wasn’t a javelin
The Mexican TV report was mistranslated and the presenter mentions Ukraine only once during the report, without mentioning that the weapon featured in the video was smuggled out of that country.
So we contacted Raytheon Technologies, the company that makes the Javelinand here is what she replied to us: “The video does not show a Javelin that is a different size and shape.”
According to weapons experts, the weapon shown in the video is a Swedish-made AT-4 rocket launcher. It’s much smaller than the Javelin and around $1,500 cheaper versus $175,000 for a Javelin.
Onerocket launcher from Ukraine fell into the hands of a drug cartel? Is it possible that these weapons are illegally sold to criminal organizations? That’s what an expert on the illegal arms trade says.
Nils DuquetDirector of the Flemish Peace Institute: “He is very very unlikely that the Mexican drug cartels currently have weapons from Ukraine. We know that the arms trade is fundamentally a regional phenomenon. So if there is traffic outside of Ukraine, it would be first in neighboring countries, and not immediately on other continents. And we don’t have that no credible evidence of arms trafficking found shooting outside of Ukraine for the last two years.”