With fewer than 50,000 people, Sierra Vista is a town of military discounts and very little shade. At a nearby U.S. Army fort, a white surveillance blimp sits in the Arizona sky like a mechanical cloud.
A drive 50 miles south will get you to the border with Mexico. That’s where an untold number of guns purchased in the United States have long shown up at deadly cartel crime scenes. Over the years, both the U.S. and Mexico have tried to stop what’s sometimes called an iron river of guns.
Last year, the Trump administration gave prosecutors a new tool. The U.S. government declared some of those cartels foreign terrorist organizations.
Why We Wrote This
The U.S. government has been unable to stanch the flow of guns purchased in American stores then handed over to Mexican drug cartels. But since President Donald Trump declared cartels foreign terrorist organizations, prosecutors have a tool that some believe could make gun dealers more careful about who they sell to.
In March, Laurence Gray, an Arizona gun seller, was indicted on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization – Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel – and of conspiring with others to do so for that cartel and its rival, the Sinaloa Cartel. Neither Mr. Gray nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.
Gun-trafficking experts say those terrorism-related charges against an American firearms dealer are likely a first. The accusations appear to respond to Mexico’s demand for action on arms trafficking, marking potential progress in the United States’ fraught but vital relationship with Mexico.
“There is a material weakness in the laws when it comes to firearms trafficking,” says Bernard Zapor, a criminal justice professor at Arizona State University and former official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, known as ATF.
Leveraging terrorism-related charges is a “good enhancement that puts some teeth into this, and potentially would cause some deterrence,” he says.
Eyepix/Nurphoto/AP/File
Marcelo Ebrard, then Mexico's foreign affairs secretary, announces his government’s lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers, in Mexico City, Aug. 4, 2021.
Drugs north, guns south
The U.S. has long accused Mexican cartels of pushing lethal drugs north. The Mexican government, meanwhile, has pleaded with American officials to stop the illicit flow of firearms south.
In Mexico, the only legal gun seller is the military. Arizona alone has more than 1,200 licensed firearms dealers.
Federal data from 2022 to 2023 shows Texas as the top source state for crime guns recovered in Mexico and traced to a purchaser (7,825), followed by Arizona (3,969). Along the southern border, a route from Arizona to the Mexican state of Sonora trafficked the most.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has urged the U.S. to respect her country’s sovereignty. She appeared pleased that the White House’s 2026 National Drug Control Strategy mentions the need to disrupt the flow of guns used by criminal groups to exert control – and the need to curb U.S. demand for illicit drugs.
The sales
Mr. Gray’s business, Grips by Larry, was incorporated in Nevada over a decade ago, according to state business records. While that name was tied to a federal firearms license, the related storefront in Sierra Vista was called The Other Guys Guns Ammo & Accessories.
Mr. Gray sold firearms, ammunition, optical gadgets, and gun grips made of mammoth tooth. The gun dealer modeled his rifles, pistols, and even a fire-breathing flamethrower for social-media clips.
“We have the largest selection of handguns in the county, I think,” Mr. Gray told local media at his shop. “We have picked up just a horrendous amount of product.”
Before the terrorism-related charges, Mr. Gray was named in another federal case against one of his employees. Special agent James Cauble from the ATF described in an affidavit how the employee and Mr. Gray had allegedly been “selling large caliber, belt-fed, rifles and other weapons of choice to individuals they know are coordinating the trafficking of these items into Mexico.”
That criminal complaint alleged that Mr. Gray sold a confidential informant a Colt .38 Super pistol for $4,000 and grips for $250 that had a rooster design, though someone else – an undercover agent – filled out the federally required paperwork for the sale. The informant told Mr. Gray’s employee that the rooster represented the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which would be the actual recipient – to which the employee allegedly said he understood and continued with the sale.
A year after the store opened in May 2024, an initial federal indictment against Mr. Gray, and a co-defendant, charged him with several gun-related crimes. Those included allegations of aiding and abetting illegal gun purchases, such as a .50-caliber rifle.
The updated indictment in March 2026 – a year after the Trump administration designated the cartels as foreign ter…
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