Jean Baptiste Kingery, a suspect released last year by US authorities in a grenades case, was arrested Aug. 31 in Mexico and has been charged with violating that nation's organized-crime laws, according to U.S. officials. Mexican police raided his home in Mazatlan and other locations nearby where they reported finding materials that could be used to construct 500 grenades, the officials said. ATF agents arrested Mr. Kingery in Arizona in June 2010 after months of surveillance and seized 116 grenade hulls and parts in his possession, the officials said.
The suspect told investigators he helped operate a mill in Mexico manufacturing improvised explosive devices made from the U.S.-sourced grenade components, they said. Mr. Kingery allegedly said he supplied the weapons to a cartel called La Familia Michoacana and also helped the cartel convert semiautomatic rifles into military-style machine guns.
Nonetheless, he walked free without being charged after just hours in custody, officials said.
Mod note at 1430 CT: all GunWalker-related posts should be listed as 'WoT Background' (red) if background, and as 'WoT Operations' (blue) if about arrests, attacks, etc. If in the US, file under 'Home Front: WoT' if in Mexico, file under 'Caribbean-Latin America'. I've moved this post to WoT Operations.
GunWalker, the narco-gang-vigilante violence in Mexico, the links between those gangs and (for example) Hezbollah, and the failing Mexican state are indeed WoT related.
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