Repeat theme?
First, before I even get to the plausibility of something that absurd (in this type of case), how many countries in the Americas actually manufacture firearms besides the US??
Apparently you don't know much, and that's becoming a repeat theme.
Starting with the second half of the 20th century, most American nations aligned themselves with NATO (even if not in NATO) standards. Virtually all nations in the western hemisphere adopted the 7.62x51mm (0.308") NATO and licensed the FAL design from FN, which FN allowed very liberally. I.e., think of the FAL as the western equivalent of the AKM, underwritten quite liberally only for the western world. These same nations scoffed at changing when the US tried to push the 5.56x45mm (0.22") as another standard, and many didn't bother adopting it after most of NATO did in the '80s or by the '90s. They still have a lot of FALs.
The FAL, and its variants, are still manufactured it for the hunting market because 7.62 NATO is still a very popular round for its range. It's still the "western world's" most common and commodity sniper round. The FAL was also, and quite regularly, fabbed fully auto because many nations don't have the US restrictions, let alone the militaries preferred them that way. The 7.62 NATO also packs a hell of a lot more punch than the 5.56 NATO, including straight through any body armor of any American law enforcement. The movies may show these guys packing 9mm SMGs, but the reality is that 7.62 is very common with organized crime from outside the US. And organized crime from outside the US is responsible for over 90% of the automatic weapons discharges in the US.
Now over the last few decades, you have several nations adopting the 7.62x39mm Russian. The USSR and, now, the Russians also licensed quite liberally the AKM, including into the Americas post-Soviet collapse. You have several, major fabrication facilities outside the US, which are not AR-preferring, and are looking for an alternative to the FAL. The AKM fits very naturally, especially with newer designs like the AKM-90s through the very respected (even by American AR enthusiasts) AK-103 and related models.
Then you'd have to get a reasonable person to believe that criminals in Mexico would choose to get their firearms from a place other than the place nearest to them, with the most amount of firearms with in most cases the easiest access to them.
If it's an AR platform, yes, it's likely from the US. Although there are many,
greatly cheaper knock-off AR platforms from China and the like. It all depends.
If it's not an AR platform, then it's
not likely from the US. I.e., FAL, AKM or anything other than 5.56mm (.22") in the legacy AR type approach. Mexico's military prefers the AR, but that's about it. Again, most of the American military world outside the US took
forever to drop the FAL, and some still
have not. Several others have even gone AKM.
And even those looked again to FN, instead of AR, for even 5.56 NATO. The "gold standard" in the bullpup option is Austria's Styer, and several American nations have adopted it, along with Australia and other nations with a very strong rifle history. But, again, that's for 5.56 NATO, which may not be commonly found in organized crime, only militaries.
Those guys, again, prefer to stick with common, inexpensive, proven 7.62 NATO or Russian platforms, typically FAL and AKM, respectively. You don't see organized crime toting AR platforms much, as the ARs are iconic for US and, to a lesser extent, Mexican military. A lot of the organized crime is built around growers
not from Mexico, but from other parts of the Americas.
They aren't coming into Mexico with ARs any more than the US. They are often brandishing FAL or AKM products that are solid, reliable and cheap. Newer US, Belgian, Austrian, etc... designs are not remotely cheap. They are not always better either (depending on your definition).
I mean, wouldn't a reasonable person have to suspend a whole lot of reality to swallow what you're shoveling.
Actually, several nations in the EU have been very guilty of not controlling their gun exports, far, far worse than the US (or the UK). This has regularly been the case of not merely France, but nations that have their economies tied to firearms orders of magnitude than the US -- like Austria and Belgium. Austria exported a brand new .50 sniper rifle design to Iran, under great protest of the US. It wasn't even a month later that it was found in the hands of an insurgent in Iraq. There was absolutely no question where it came from.
China is actually a huge supplier now, with knock-offs of every platform, including the US popular AR.
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