The Mexican government said Monday it has reached agreement with the
United States for a joint operation to combat gun smuggling along the U.S. border after seeing a spike in the number of illegal firearms detected.
Seizures of assault rifles in
Mexico are up 122% so far this year.
Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico's military would coordinate with U.S. authorities to launch anti-gun-smuggling operations in five Mexican border cities — Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.