The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced a two face two-phase rollout of a new version of eTrace4.0, an ATF web-based tracing software. The software is destined for the governments of Mexico, Guatemala y Costa Rica. The newest version of the software is also in Spanish permitting the search of recovered firearms at crime scenes.
In a press conference the U.S Ambassador of Mexico informed that in the first stage of the project eTrace will be limited to Mexico two Central American governments. The live release of the software will be used to test the software and address user feedback .In its second stage the software will be extended to other Spanish speaking nations.
According to El Dario, in an analysis done by ATF, 90 percent of firearms confiscated, the last four years, in Mexico and at the border before entering the country come from the United States.
Kenneth E. Melson, ATF Deputy Director, noted that Spanish eTrace marcs the beginning of a new era of cooperation between agencies and their international partners, since it will strengthened joint efforts to tackle the smuggling of weapons and criminal acts.
“We must identify those who put guns in the hands of criminals, and comprehensive tracing of all recovered crime guns is the first step by law enforcement in stopping the violence…,” he emphasized.
Sources:
La Jornada. “Dará EU a México equipo para rastrear armas de fuego.” La Jornada. 31 Diciembre, 2009
