Guns get top dollar
Posted on 12 March 2008 by Jack
A street-level hood in Toronto will pay $2,000 in cash or marijuana for a handgun worth $250 south of the border.
Stopping that deadly trade of American guns for Canadian bud is how Special Agent Regina Lombardo of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms spends her days.
Arriving in 2005, in the notorious Summer of the Gun, Lombardo has been stationed in Toronto to work with the Ontario’s provincial weapons enforcement unit. Her mission: Trace every recovered U.S.-source crime gun.
“Most of it is in exchange for drugs,” Lombardo said. “Your hydroponic here is exchanged for the guns.”
Although law enforcement in both countries have worked together before, she was assigned to help set up a joint crime gun analysis team, which she said is paying off.
Guns hit the streets from sources on both sides of the border and she helps co-ordinate police forces to shut off the trigger trade, Lombardo said. A trafficker with access to guns in the U.S. who can get them to Canada will be rewarded with an inflated price because of the high demand for firearms. The traffickers are usually banned from buying guns so they use “straw purchasers,” sometimes as many as 10 to 15.
TOP GUNS
Popularity: 22% [?]
March 12th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
With such high profit margins, taking care of the “gun problem” is going to be a bit more complicated than locking up a few hoodies.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Overheard at Wendy Cukier’s office, sometimes referred to as the Coalition for Gun Control HQ (coincidently enjoying direct deposit priviledges from the Federal Treasury) and situated at a prestigious Canadian university. Sheesh…..why don’t they just ban the darn things? All this money time and manpower wasted for nothing. Stupid is as stupid does. This is not rocket science. Could it be any simpler? A total ban on handguns. Problem solved.