November 3, 2009

Armas Cruzadas

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is charged with enforcing a wide array of laws related to securing the border and combating criminal smuggling, including illegal arms exports.

In recent years, rival drug cartels and criminal organizations have sought to acquire more powerful and dangerous firearms, in part by exploiting illegal smuggling of weapons from the United States. To address weapons smuggling at the border, ICE launched Operation Armas Cruzadas in 2008 as a bilateral law enforcement and intelligence-sharing operation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies.

Strategic Goals and Results

The mission of Operation Armas Cruzadas is to comprehensively identify, disrupt and dismantle trans-border weapons smuggling networks. The goals include:

• establishing a bilateral program to stop weapons smuggling;
• coordinating operations;
• developing intelligence about arms trafficking networks;
• strengthening interagency cooperation;
• promoting intelligence information exchange; and
• implementing points of contact for information exchange.

Since its inception in 2008, Operation Armas Cruzadas has resulted in the seizure of 1,880 weapons, more than $7.9 million, 206,412 rounds of ammunition, and the arrests of 257 individuals on criminal charges, resulting in 147 criminal indictments and 96 convictions.

Partnership Roles and Responsibilities

In response to the increased violence along the Southwest border with Mexico, ICE has partnered with other federal, foreign, state and local law enforcement officials to create the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) initiative.

The BEST initiative serves as the enforcement platform for Operation Armas Cruzadas and leverages federal, state, local, tribal and foreign law enforcement and intelligence resources in an effort to identify, disrupt and dismantle organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities in the border and threaten the overall safety and security of the American public.

BEST teams incorporate personnel from ICE; U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Federal Bureau of Investigation; U.S. Coast Guard; and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with other key law enforcement agencies. In addition, BEST teams on the Southwest border include the participation of the Mexican federal law enforcement agency, Secretaria de Seguridad Publica.

Key Components

ICE has incorporated the following key components into Operation Armas Cruzadas:

• Stakeholder training. ICE trains stakeholders in appropriate laws, resources and methods used to combat cross-border smuggling as well as how to input and retrieve database information on active cases.
• Intelligence analysis. BEST operations generate raw data on arrests, seizures and significant events, which is compiled and provided to the Border Violence Intelligence Cell for analysis.
• Vetted Arms Trafficking Group. This group receives and analyzes investigative information from Mexican weapons seizures and arrests for exploitation by BEST.
• Weapons Virtual Task Force. The task force facilitates real-time online access to actionable information on daily firearms seizures, arrests and other intelligence generated by ICE, CBP, the Mexican government and other agencies as appropriate.
• ICE Border Liaison Program. The Border Liaison Program establishes an official ICE point of contact for CBP, ICE representatives in Mexico, state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as Mexican law enforcement agencies along the U.S. and Mexican border.