Drug Cartels and U.S. Firearms

The Justice Department says a federal grand jury last week returned a superseding indictment charging Arizona firearms dealer Laurence Gray, 65, with attempting to provide material support and conspiring to provide support to two Mexican cartels that the U.S. has designated foreign terrorist organizations: Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel. Gray, a federally licensed dealer who owns Grips by Larry in Hereford, Arizona, was first indicted in 2025 alongside Tucson resident Barrett Weinberger, 73, on firearms‑trafficking, straw‑purchasing and false‑statement charges tied to multiple 2025 gun sales, including a Feb. 22, 2025 Colt 1911 purchase. The new indictment upgrades the case by explicitly tying his alleged conduct to terrorism‑support statutes, reflecting the Trump administration’s move to treat major cartels as terrorist organizations under its "Operation Take Back America" enforcement initiative. DOJ and ATF say Mexican cartels routinely rely on U.S. straw purchasers to buy guns legally and then smuggle them south, a pipeline U.S. officials and critics link to escalating cartel violence and fentanyl flows that directly hit American communities. Gray’s attorney has been contacted for comment, and the case will be watched as a test of how far prosecutors can stretch material‑support laws beyond traditional jihadist groups to target U.S. gun suppliers to cartels.