American High School Students Are Selling Guns Bound for Cartels

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Americas|American High School Students Are Selling Guns Bound for Cartels

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/world/americas/high-school-arms-dealing-mexican-cartels.html

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!Two people fire guns in a dusty, rocky outdoor area with hills. Shell casings fly near the person in the foreground, who wears a black face covering.

American High School Students Are Selling Guns Bound for Cartels

Drawn by money and status, teenagers in Arizona are buying, stealing and selling weapons destined for criminal groups in Mexico.

*Two teenage American weapons traffickers known as J.M. and El Flaco shooting rifles in the desert outside of Phoenix.*

American High School Students Are Selling Guns Bound for Cartels

Drawn by money and status, teenagers in Arizona are buying, stealing and selling weapons destined for criminal groups in Mexico.

Two teenage American weapons traffickers known as J.M. and El Flaco shooting rifles in the desert outside of Phoenix.Credit...

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By Paulina Villegas

Photographs by Adriana Zehbrauskas

Reporting from Phoenix

Oct. 3, 2026

Leer en español

They are too young to buy a beer and barely old enough to drive, yet these four teenage boys have already found their way into the criminal underworld.

On weekends, they drive into the Sonoran Desert outside Phoenix. I watched them line up AR-15s and AK-style rifles against their cars, pose for photos and spend the afternoon shooting targets. At night, they head to parties, smoke pot and scroll endlessly through their social media feeds.

These teenagers are part of a growing network of American high school students and young adults that are helping to arm some of Mexico’s most powerful and violent cartels, according to U.S. officials and trafficking experts who are tracking the trend. They source weapons ranging like handguns and high-caliber rifles, and sell them almost exclusively to cartel operatives based in the United States, the teenagers said.

Image!Three people stand on a rooftop, backs to the viewer. They look toward a distant construction crane with an American flag.

*From left, the teenage weapons traffickers known as El Güero, El Flaco and J.M. at a parking garage in downtown Phoenix. They come from different backgrounds, the children of immigrants and multigenerational Arizonans.*

In repeated interviews, four weapons traffickers ages 16 to 19 — all current or former high school students in west Phoenix — allowed me to observe how they buy firearms and sell them to the highest bidder. Sometimes, they said, they steal the guns and then resell them. They aren’t loyal to one criminal group or another; instead, they say, they are motivated by making money, gaining status and having a sense of belonging.

The American teenagers spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the illegal nature of their activities. Their identities were corroborated through their official identification documents. I observed gun transactions unfold in real time through encrypted WhatsApp group chats and Telegram channels. Other elements of their accounts were corroborated by current and former U.S. law enforcement agents and trafficking experts.

Paulina Villegas is a reporter for The Times based in Mexico City, where she covers criminal organizations, the drug trade and other issues affecting the region.

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