Weapons smuggling on Mexico’s northern border. A brief history of a gang of traffickers in Ciudad Juarez, 1923-1930

Abstract

Border regions share a common history on a global scale. Among other recurring phenomena, the smuggling of goods is a type of crime inherent to international border regimes. In this paper I propose a case analysis located on Mexico’s northern border to, through the lens of the actors and their daily routines, approach  the national macro-historical context with its political turmoil and progressive legislation. Even more specifically, the case addressed here involves the smuggling of war materials, which is the main reason national security institutions immediately intervened by leading the defeat and prosecution of a gang of smugglers led by an elderly woman. The judicial event spanned from the first smuggling trial against this old woman in 1923 to her escape from the municipal prison of Ciudad Juarez in 1929, when she was declared a fugitive from justice a year later. For this analytical effort I take as documentary sources the judicial files located in the Historical Archive of the Casa de la Cultura Jurídica de Ciudad Juárez, part of the patrimony of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) of Mexico.