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Welcome to the Crime Fiction Files. I’m Carmen Amato, a CIA veteran sharing the encounters, experiences and current events behind my books, including the award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz series set in Acapulco.

First, a big welcome to so many new readers! You’re in the right place for crime fiction that pulls from real life danger and deception.

Second, for those who have been around for a while, Mystery Ahead is now Crime Fiction Files. Same every-other-Sunday schedule. More in-depth content.

I watched through the glass as the big German Shepherd left muddy pawprints on my new Kipling suitcase. Luggage from my flight was strewn across the airport tarmac to make it easier for the dog to sniff each one.

I’d been through this routine before upon arrival in Mexico City. The gawking passengers next to me clearly had not.

As I watched, I wondered what the dog would find this time?

Drugs?

Guns?

Ammo?

Ants over the border

Despite gun ownership being illegal, Mexico is awash in guns.

The Detective Emilia Cruz series is authentic Mexican Noir. People are shot and killed. No need for poison or knives because everyone has a gun.

Most weapons in Mexico used by drug cartels come from the United States. When Mexican forces assessed the weaponry of the late but not lamented narco kingpin El Mencho, they found that 80% came from the United States.

That percentage dovetails with a detailed investigation that recently found 83% of the guns smuggled into Mexico are the work of small independent operators. The remaining 17% come from big box stories near the border.

This steady trickle of weapons across the border is known as tráfico de hormigas, because it’s like ants over the border.

Will I use this in a future Detective Emilia Cruz story? You bet.

(Also the dog clambering over my suitcase, but that’s for another day.)

Te amo ammo

Of course, a gun only works when you have ammunition for it. The cartel weapon of choice is an AK-47 type assault rifle (Pablo Escobar’s gold handguns aside) which uses 7.62 x 39mm rounds.

Last week, a US federal task force in southern Arizona announced that it had intercepted more than 47,000 rounds of just such ammo headed to Mexico. It was concealed in multiple vehicles trying to cross into Mexico at the Nogales/Mariposa port of entry.

This is just the latest. Big caches of Mexico-bound ammo were seized throughout 2025.

So where is this ammo actually coming from?

An inadvertent supplier is the US Army’s Lake City plant in Missouri. Mexico’s Defense Minister Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo recently asserted that almost half of all the .50-caliber rifle rounds seized by Mexican authorities over the last decade can be traced to that single source.

Lake City primarily supplies the US military but is allowed to use excess production capacity to make ammunition for sale to foreign governments, law enforcement agencies and the general public.

Aaaand we’re back to the tráfico de hormigas.

Stamping out the ants

The previous president of Mexico had a slogan that encapsulated his approach to organized crime: Hugs not Bullets. While he was in office, counterdrug cooperation with the US was curtailed and ants continued to march across the border.

Homicide rates in Mexico rose, as did drug-related deaths in the US.

But times (and presidents) change. Last September, the US and Mexico announced a new security framework for “real-time information sharing, coordinated operations and forensic technology to trace firearms.” https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/09/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-and-mexican-foreign-secretary-juan-ramon-de-la-fuente-at-a-joint-press-availability

Most US media outlets have already forgotten the new framework, but Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has not. Since then, she’s handed over major narco kingpins to the US, accepted help to capture cartel leaders, and can point to a drop in homicides.

Sheinbaum’s new slogan might be Power Politics not Bullets.

But can this new framework stamp out the ants? Can Detective Emilia Cruz help from her vantage point in Acapulco?

I’m hopeful on both counts. Those airport dogs need a break.

In 43 MISSING, Detective Emilia Cruz interviews Adelita and Erik Flores about their involvement in the disappearance of 43 students from a nearby teaching college. Both Erik and Adelita lie through their teeth, yet unwittingly provide a clue that helps Emilia solve the case.

In the upcoming DRAGON CARTEL, Emilia will interview them again because their son is the infamous killer El Barracuda. This time the conversation will be in a prison. Both parents are in jail for their role in the disappearance of the 43 students, but only one feels any remorse.

Listen to this excerpt from the 43 MISSING audiobook narrated by Leanne Maksin and guess which parent–Erik or Adelita–is more likely to help Emilia find El Barracuda in DRAGON CARTEL.

#thankyou

A huge thank-you to Kathleen C. for her review of the 43 MISSING audiobook on Audible. Hearing a professional voice actor interpret Detective Emilia Cruz’s inner thoughts is always an exciting experience for me and I’m glad Kathleen felt that same spark!

First of all, it's based on an actual event which makes it even more compelling. The author has a real skill for making us feel like we are really there, all our senses engaged. I really like the narrator as well. As a hard of hearing person, I sometime have trouble with audio book narrators but this one spoke so clearly I didn't miss a word. Storytelling at its best and characters we get to like so much that the tension when they are in danger is real, heart racing kind of tension.

#watch

In our most recent Crime Conversation on YouTube, UK crime fiction author Jane Harvey-Berrick and I talk about how our main characters evolve in the midst of tough investigations and emotional turmoil.

#extras

FUN: My newly redesigned website includes a Reader Hub with lots of extras for both Galliano Club and Detective Emilia Cruz fans. Photos, food, book club resources & more: https://carmenamato.net/crime-fiction-reader-hub/

EAT: Chef Mely Martinez is the author of one of my favorite cookbooks, MEXICO IN MY KITCHEN, and her website is full of easy recipes for great Mexican food. I’m trying her Arroz Verde this week: https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/arroz-verde-mexican-green-rice/

ATTEND: I’ll be speaking at Salem Meets the Noir, a conference on Hispanic Noir, this May at Salem State University in Salem, MA. See details and register to attend here: https://www.salemstate.edu/calendar/salem-meets-noir-may-19-2026

Featured image Thawathai Seangsai via Pixabay.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me.

Until next time,

PS: A percentage of book sales and affiliate links go to support veterans and first responder organizations. When you buy a book, invite me on a podcast or recommend this newsletter, you help me help others. Thank you.

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MY BACKSTORY— I learned a few things about danger, deception and resilience during a 30-year career with the CIA focusing on counterdrug and technical collection. Now a mystery author, those lessons play out on the page, especially in the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series set in Acapulco. Starting with Cliff Diver, the series is a back-to-back winner of the Poison Cup Award for Outstanding Series from CrimeMasters of America. I’ve also written historical and political thrillers, essays about the craft of crime fiction, and live with a very large white dog named Bear.

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Q: Why Didn't "Hugs not Bullets" Work?