Mexico City, Mexico - Mexico's government on Tuesday revealed that nearly half of the high-powered .50-caliber cartridges seized by the country's authorities since 2012 originate from the same US Army factory.

Mexico's Defense Secretary, General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, revealed that of the 137,000 .50-caliber rounds seized by Mexican authorities since 2012, 47% of them came from the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant.

The ammunition factory, located outside Kansas City in Missouri, is the US Army's number one manufacturer of rifle rounds and is owned by the federal government.

It is believed that the rounds seized by Mexico were ultimately sold in gun shops across the southern US.

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In addition, General Trevilla Trejo said that since Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum came to office in October 2024, around 18,000 firearms have also been seized, nearly 80% of which originated in the US.

"18,000 broad and short weapons are secured. Of these 18,000, around 77 or 78 percent come from the United States," General Trevilla Trejo said when asked about a recent New York Times investigation into Lake City ammunition on Tuesday.

The investigation, which had been conducted alongside the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, revealed that a huge amount of the ammunition used by cartels in Mexico was made by the US military.

According to the NYT, many of the .50-caliber firearms obtained from the Missouri plant have been used to down helicopters, murder government officials, and kill large numbers of people.

Sheinbaum said on Monday that she and her administration were reviewing the NYT reports in an attempt to make greater sense of how such ammunition made its way into Mexico.

Sheinbaum expressed a desire to "understand how it's possible that these weapons, which are for the exclusive use of the Army, are entering Mexico."