CHARLOTTE — Thousands of firearms from Charlotte end up in Central and South America and have been used in brutal crimes by drug cartels, officials said.
Some of those guns trace back to being stolen from their original owners but others involve straw purchases meaning someone bought them legally and then sold them off illegally.
Criminal organizations control the streets of Mexico and other Latin American countries, but most guns used are from north of the border.
“This is no longer a border issue,” said Peter Forcelli, a former senior executive in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The Department of Justice, which oversees the ATF, recently said more than 74% of weapons used by cartels in Mexico come from the U.S.
It goes beyond the cartels.
Agents recovered 227 firearms from crime scenes in Mexico in 2022-23 that came from the Carolinas, according to a report.
“If you’re not willing to turn off that valve and stop that flow, it’s going to continue, especially with the cartels that have such deep pockets,” Porcelli said.
Straw purchasing contributes to how the guns get south of the border.
Straw purchasing is when a person goes to a gun shop and legally buys a gun or multiple firearms under the guise that it is for them.
However, some of those guns get trafficked or sold to someone who shouldn’t have guns.
For example, Walter Chinchilla was federally charged, accused of buying multiple guns around Charlotte and trying to smuggle them to Honduras.
There’s no proof those guns were destined for criminal organizations.
However, according to a criminal complaint, Customs and Border Protection” intercepted “six handguns and several magazines” at the “Port of Miami” last year. All of them were found “hidden inside the base of decorative table lamps”.
Investigators said four of the guns were bought in the Charlotte area including two at a gun shop in Matthews where Chinchilla was allegedly seen on surveillance video with two other men receiving cash before the purchase.
According to federal prosecutors, Chinchilla met with an undercover officer in October 2024 at the Aisle Pawn Shop in Mooresville.
Investigators said he agreed to buy two firearms for that officer, but it didn’t stop there.
Court records say Chinchilla walked out of the store, got in a car with that officer, and told him he had someone who “could smuggle firearms out of the U.S. for a fee.”
Court documents also say the feds believe Chinchilla “made upwards of 60 to 100 illegal purchase of firearms” and told undercover officers he had “contacts to smuggle firearms into Mexico and Honduras.”
The feds make it clear that the gun shops that sold him those guns did nothing wrong.
Chinchilla could legally buy them but it’s what they say he did after that was illegal.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Lawrence Cameron said gun trafficking is a significant problem.
Cameron said prosecutors are taking the problem head-on.
“So, when those guns end up in the hands of other countries, we don’t know where they’re going,” Cameron said. “They could or could not be going to members of the cartel and then that, therefore, could increase the cartel’s ability to use violence to accomplish its aim, which is to distribute large amounts of narcotics in this country and elsewhere.”
Licensed gun shops around Charlotte, including Hyatt Coin and Gun say straw purchasing has been a problem.
“It is something that we see on, not just a weekly basis, but a day-to-day basis,” said Neal Conner, general manager at Hyatt Coin and Gun.
Conner said it’s something his staff takes seriously.
“(We) definitely have the guys on it like bloodhound dogs,” Conner said. “They’re always poised, watching body language. They’re watching behavior.”
There are signs in the shop that read, “Don’t lie for the other guy.”
“I’m trying to make sure you don’t violate the law,” Conner said.
So there is a collective effort to combat the problem.
“The people dying at the other end of those firearms are still human beings,” Forcellis said. “And we should always do our best to interdict firearms that are going into the hands of criminals and to prosecute the people involved in those schemes.”
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