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| Customs and Border Protection officers stand by guns confiscated along the U.S.-Mexico border before a news conference with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego Wednesday, April 1, 2009. |
CUERNAVACA, Mexico (AP) -- U.S. and Mexican officials say they will soon name a group to develop strategies for stopping the cross-border flow of weapons and drugs. Emerging from a conference Thursday with U.S. officials, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora said more meetings are needed to develop plans to bring warring drug cartels under control along the border.
Medina-Mora also announced plans to begin checking 10 percent of the vehicles entering his country from the U.S. for illegal weapons.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met privately for several hours with Medina-Mora, Interior Minister Fernando Gomez-Mont and Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna.
The officials hammered out an agreement that might be signed when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Mexican President Felipe Calderon later this month.
Holder said the U.S. is not seeking to change any of its gun laws as part of the effort to curb weapons smuggling.
"I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of what we have begun," he said.
Until recently, the U.S. did not regularly inspect southbound vehicles, and the Mexicans didn't scan the license plates of cars coming into the country. Now Mexico will begin scanning vehicles for drugs and money and using intelligence to target the right vehicles, Medina-Mora said.
Mexico will also rely on the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to use technology to help trace the illegal sale of guns.
