Arms Race on the Border

"Automatic weapons, grenades and grenade launchers:" Those are the types of weapons that drug- and alien-smuggling gangs along the Mexican border have, Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., the sheriff of Zapata County, Texas, tells the Washington Times. Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested 400 people in connection with a Mexican drug-trafficking organization, and seized $45 million in cash and 100 weapons. And this was the haul in recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids near Laredo, Texas: "two completed improvised explosive devices, materials for making 33 more, 300 primers, 1,280 rounds of ammunition, five grenades, nine pipes with end caps, 26 grenade triggers, 31 grenade spoons, 40 grenade pins, 19 black powder casings, a silencer and cash."