[Crowley:] U.S. officials say Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves with AK-47s bought in Arizona. The alleged operations can be especially hard to crack, because, as CNN's Casey Wian reports, anyone who passes a background check is allowed, under U.S. law to buy the high-powered rifles by the dozens.
[Dave Larue, Legendary Guns:] This would be the standard gun.
[Casey Wian, Cnn Correspondent:] The AK-47 was developed after World War II for the Soviet Army.
[Larue:] It's probably the most produced and reliable weapon in the world today.
[Wian:] More than six decades later, Kalashnikov-style rifles remain in demand from collectors, gun enthusiasts and Mexican drug cartels. Why would a drug cartel member want to be armed with an AK-47?
[Larue:] High capacity in the magazine and extreme reliability.
[Wian:] The semiautomatic version can be purchased legally in most U.S. states, but in Arizona, federal officials say, that's become a problem.
[Dennis Burke, U.s. Attorney:] The drug cartels go shopping for their war weapons in Arizona.
[Wian:] Last month, federal authorities announced they broke up a major weapons trafficking ring, supplying hundred of high-powered rifles to a Mexican cartel. All of the 34 people charged are either U.S. citizens or legal residents accused of acting as so-called straw purchasers.
[Burke:] Around August 2010, defendant Ria Patino purchased 12 12 AK-47 type rifles from a gun shop in Glendale. Three days later, federal agents found all 12 of the purchased rifles concealed in a stove and a television in an attempt to smuggle them into Mexico from the United States.
[Wian:] Prosecutors say the weapons were discovered here at the Lukeville, Arizona border crossing, but allegedly bought here at a suburban Phoenix gun shop. Prosecutors say that during the course of their investigation, suspects allegedly bought hundreds of AK-47 rifles, the weapon of choice for Mexican drug cartels, from the Lone Wolf Trading Company, along with assorted other guns. Although purchasers say the suspects bought weapons in batches as large as 40, they say the gun dealer broke no laws. Other Arizona gun dealers say the often suspect customers may be working for drug traffickers.
[Larue:] We make quite an effort to ascertain that's not the case, and if we have suspicions that that is the case, we terminate the sale. And I'll bet we've done that a hundred times, probably more than that.
[Larry Kaufman, Windsor Arms Co:] If I had an AK-47, I'm thinking I sold it to an individual who went through a background check and so on, I considered I could go to sleep at night. But if I'm buying the stuff by the cratefuls, wait a minute, something stinks here.
[Wian:] In Arizona, it's legal to buy as many high-powered rifles as you want for your own personal use, but lying about buying them for someone else is a federal crime.
[Bill Newell, Atf Special Agent In Charge:] Individuals for who money lie on the ATF forms in the acquisition of firearms and knowingly do that, and then knowingly put those firearms, many times tens if not hundreds of firearms, in the hands of individuals who they probably have a pretty good cause to believe are taking those firearm south, in my opinion, have as much blood on their hands as those individuals that ultimately pull the trigger.
[Wian:] The ATF says gun dealers often cooperate in identifying suspected straw purchasers, but the agency would not discuss the role of the Lone Wolf Trading Company in its weapons trafficking investigation. We tried to speak with the store's owner. He would only provide a prepared statement, reading in part, "We have worked closely in conjunction with several federal agencies, including the Phoenix office of ATF. Due to the sensitive nature of any ongoing federal investigation, we are obviously precluded from making any further statement." In December, ATF proposed new regulations that would allow it to track sales of two or more rifles to the same person within a five-day period, similar to existing requirements for handguns. The White House has not acted on the proposal.
[Burke:] The idea that anybody can just go in on any day and buy 20 AK-47s and the person doesn't have to explain anything other than the fact that they have to say is that for yourself or not, which is the legal hook we have of the federal crime they committed, that something's lacking there.
[Wian:] Casey Wian, CNN, Phoenix.
[Crowley:] A new warning about U.S. relations with Pakistan from America's top military officer. And the unrest in Libya. Can Muammar Gadhafi survive the anti- government protests that have spread to his country? And Sarah Palin finds a new forum to slam President Obama.