According to multiple independent reports, between 2006 and 2018 Israel exported about 23,000–24,000 small arms (including military-grade rifles) to Mexico for use by Mexican security forces such as police and military. This was part of Mexico’s effort to combat drug cartels during that period.

✔️ Investigations — including research by human-rights groups — found that some of those weapons later ended up in the hands of drug cartels after being diverted from official security forces.

✔️ Arms manufacturers are also known to sell weapons to governments that, with weak internal controls or corruption, can allow those arms to leak into illicit markets. This is a global problem, not unique to Israel.

So the sale of weapons is real and leakage to cartels has occurred, but the weapons were not sold directly to cartels by Israel and there is no evidence that the Israeli government intentionally armed criminal groups.

https://afsc.org/newsroom/how-israeli-firearms-fall-hands-mexican-drug-cartels

https://ciudadanospormexico.org/how-israeli-firearms-fall-into-the-hands-of-mexican-drug-cartels-tech-news-technology-news-haaretz/

https://stopusarmstomexico.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Deadly-Trade_final.pdf

https://ciudadanospormexico.org/how-israeli-firearms-fall-into-the-hands-of-mexican-drug-cartels-tech-news-technology-news-haaretz/

(THE UKRAINE HAS BEEN SELLING WEAPONS TO OVERSEAS CRIMINAL GANGS AND TERRORISTS SINCE THE US TAKEOVER IN 2014. AND THAT INCLUDES MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS WHO HAVE BEEN BUYING DRONES FROM THE UKRAINE THAT WERE MADE IN THE US)