Mexico drug cartel’s grenades from Guatemalan army

GUATEMALA CITY — Thousands of bullets and grenades that were part of a Mexican drug cartel’s weapons cache belong to the Guatemalan army, Guatemala’s anti-drug prosecutor said Thursday.

Prosecutor Leonel Ruiz said investigators have determined that more than 3,800 bullets and 563 grenades seized outside Guatemala’s capital in April following a shootout that left five anti-drug agents dead came from military bases in the Central American nation, which has become a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine.

“They were taken from military bases but that doesn’t necessarily mean the drug traffickers stole the weapons because it could be that they bought them from a third party,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said investigators identified the Guatemalan army’s emblem on the grenades and munitions.

In the April weapons seizure, police also found eight anti-personnel mines, 11 M60 machine guns, bullet proof vests and two armored cars that investigators say belong to the Zetas, a group of assassins for Mexico’s Gulf drug cartel.

Ruiz said investigators are still trying to determine if the machine guns and other weapons also belong to the army.

Mexican authorities say cartels get most of their high-caliber assault rifles from the U.S. but that they are turning to Central America for other military-grade weaponry like grenades and even the occasional rocket launcher.

Guatemalan Defense Minister Abraham Valenzuela said that shortly after being named to the post in December he was notified that the army was missing weapons. He said he filed a report with an army tribunal who took over the case.

Valenzuela declined to give any more details on the missing weapons. “I can’t give any other information because that could prompt the suspects to flee and flout justice,” he said.

The Gulf cartel has long been believed to be operating in Guatemala.

In March, Guatemalan authorities found a Gulf cartel training camp near the border with Mexico along with 500 grenades