by Everyone who has either tried to buy ammo in person or online knows that there is an ammo shortage. The primary reason for the shortage is that demand has increased more than the supply can be expanded. The growth in gun ownership over the past year and a half is one of the major reasons.
It seems there is another reason for the shortage.
Theft.
More specifically, an armed heist of two trucks containing approximately 7 million rounds of Aguila ammunition in Mexico.
The armed group intercepted the trucks on June 9 in the municipality of San Luis de la Paz, in the central state of Guanajuato, according to press reports. The drivers and security personnel were unharmed in the robbery. The trucks were found later, with their two trailers emptied of bullets.
The stolen ammunition was for 14 different types of guns and had an estimated value of $2.7 million, according to media estimates. While most of the ammunition was for small firearms, such as .22- and .40-caliber pistols, a significant portion of the bullets were for high-powered weapons, including AR-15 and M-16 rifles.
The trucks had left the Aguila Arms factory in Cuernavaca and were hijacked as they headed to Texas. The area where the hijacking occurred, San Luis de la Paz, is the scene of a bloody struggle between the Jalisco cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. Fortunately, the unarmed drivers and guards were unharmed. This has led to speculation that this was an inside job.
Outdoor Life notes that earlier reports tried to downplay the robbery saying it was mostly just .22 LR ammo that would be useless to the cartels.
The Yucatan Times provided this breakdown of what was stolen.
- 4 million 872 thousand high speed .22 caliber Long Rifle (LR) cartridges.
- 1 million 230 thousand cartridges .22 caliber LR high speed PH
- 295 thousand .40 caliber S&W cartridges
- 215 thousand cartridges caliber .22 LR super hummingbird
- 117 thousand .45 caliber automatic cartridges
- 100 thousand cartridges .38 caliber special jacketed
- 99 thousand M 7 1/2 high speed .410 caliber cartridges
- 87 thousand cartridges caliber 7.62 × 51 mm 150 GN
- 71,500 12-gauge minishell buckshot
- 25 thousand cartridges caliber .38 super auto + P
- 3,000 12-gauge minishell slug cartridges
None of the cartels are claiming credit for the heist. According to Insight Crime:
Stealing ammunition, especially on such a massive scale, is virtually unheard of in the Mexican underworld, and the bullets could filter to criminal groups, as does much of the ammunition smuggled from the United States.
To put the size of the robbery into perspective, Guanajuato’s attorney general said that 15,000 bullets in León, the state’s largest city, are enough to arm the entire municipal police. The stolen ammunition could supply the police force more than 460 times over, he said.
I have to admit that is a lot of ammo floating around the streets of Mexico. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure it is going to end up in the wrong hands.
Given the caliber of the bulk of the ammo, I expect to see it start to appear at gun shows and other “non-retail” outlets. I hope they publish the lot numbers so we can be on the lookout. I’ll be real suspicious of any Aguila ammo at below market price. I could use some ammo but don’t want to be receiving stolen goods.
Unless the cartels have a training program, I expect to see the 22 be reinserted to the market at some point. Who knows on what side of the border.
You could be right. While the .22LR could be an assassin’s bullet, that would be a lot of assassinations!
“ a significant portion of the bullets were for high-powered weapons, including AR-15 and M-16 rifles.”
Say what? According to the published list it was mostly rimfire, followed by handgun and shotgun.
Conflation.
You have to consider the sources. Most of the US reporting was just repeating what was first published in Mexican newspapers.