VANCOUVER - Illicit guns that make their way across the U.S. border into Canada are a serious problem but a relative nuisance compared with the desperate battle being fought on the U.S.-Mexico border, say officials.

More than 4,000 people - including hundreds of police officers - have died in the last 18 months as the Mexican government battles the country's powerful drug cartels. Border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez have become virtual free-fire zones.

And most of the weapons of that war don't come from thenarco-states and banana republics of Central and South America. The United States of America is one of the bad guys' top arms suppliers.

"We have a problem here in Canada but they're recovering a large number of guns in Mexico, as well," says Terry Alverson, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives working out of the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver.

"It's incredible what's going on down there. It's like something out of the Wild West."

Previously unpublished ATF gun-tracing data released to The Canadian Press shows 1,399 firearms recovered in Canada last year originated in the United States. In Mexico, that number is 6,532.

About half of them were handguns but there were also more than 1,800 were rifles, including AR-15, AK-47s and 22 machine guns.

Mexican gun laws, administered by the country's Defence Ministry, are strict: Legal gun owners face extensive background checks and are limited to fairly low-calibre weapons.

But enforcement can be spotty and the presence of a comparatively wide-open gun market next door is an irresistible lure to criminals and profiteers, says a justice official in Washington state, one source of illicit rifles in Mexico.

"The weapons that they are recovering at crime scenes are increasingly sophisticated and they're newer weapons," said the official, who did not want to be identified. "They're not weapons that came from Central America. They are right out of the crate."

He said U.S. border guards once intercepted a 70-year-old woman from Yuma, Arizona with a half dozen AK-47s.

"She was handing them off to somebody and they were going to pay her," he said.

A Mexican government official, who also did not want to be named, said the number of guns in illegal shipments and their level of sophistication have increased.

"We have instances in which arms that you can only find, for example, in the black market or with the U.S. military, have made their way to Mexican drug cartels or Mexican organizations dealing with all sorts of organized crime," he said.

Responding to Mexican concerns, ATF announced in January it was moving 50 agents into the southwest on top of the 125 already there.

ATF is also making its gun-tracing technology - used by Canadian police for the last two years - available via U.S. consulates in Mexico and working on a Spanish-language version.

The agency says its Project Gunrunner on the southern border has resulted in thousands of firearms being seized.

But the U.S. government has been slow to recognize gun trafficking as a mutual border security issue, the Mexican official said.

"Little by little they're getting the message," he said. "We believe that they can do much more at the federal level and also they can do much more at the state and municipal levels."

Tom Diaz, senior analyst with the Washington-based Violence Policy Center, said the Americans increased resources at the Mexican border because of the body count.

"(Mexico's problem) at least has gotten the attention of federal authorities because it's become a diplomatic issue, even more so than with Canada, possibly because they're actually killing people down there with American guns," Diaz said.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Canada has the Americans' attention on gun smuggling.

"We've already done that and that's why the Americans have increased resources at their border and we've increased resources at our border," Day said.

But Toronto Mayor David Miller believes Ottawa should work with Mexico on a joint diplomatic push in Washington to tighten U.S. gun laws.

"Mexico is a natural ally," Miller said. "While the ATF's work's important, at the root of all this is the incredibly lax laws in the U.S. and I think with Mexico's help we can make big inroads and the majority of people in the U.S. that don't want a country that's run by the handgun will perhaps find the courage of their voice."

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