HOUSTON - When it comes to selling weaponry to the drug thugs of Mexico, Houston gun dealer Carter's Country has been labeled a profit hungry merchant willing to turn a blind eye to bad guys south of the border.
A Washington Post investigative story linked 115 firearms confiscated over the past two years by Mexican authorities waging the drug war to Carter's Country outlets. That makes the largest independent gun dealer in the region among the biggest sources of fire power for the murderous cartels.
It certainly looks bad, until you hear a different side of the story.
"Let me tell you something about Carter's Country. They have been co-operating with ATF from the get go," says attorney Dick Deguerin who represents Carter's Country owner, Bill Carter.
Deguerin says the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms asked Carter's Country to complete transactions, even when sales people strongly suspected the weapons were headed to Mexican drug gangs.
"They were told to go through with what they considered to be questionable sales. They were told to go through with sales of three or more assault rifles at the same time or five or more 9 millimeter guns at the same time or a young Hispanic male paying in cash. It's all profiling, but they went through with it," said Deguerin.
"They reported them promptly, either while the transaction was going on or soon there after. They did this for months and months and months. Went through with the sales because the ATF told them to go through with the sales," he added.
Deguerin say at the ATF's request, Carter's Country employees followed some customers into parking lots and recorded license plate numbers.
"If the ATF had used the information that Carter's Country developed for them they could have stopped these guns from going across the border," insists Deguerin.
A spokesperson for ATF would neither confirm nor deny the co-operation agreement with Carter's Country, but did say "I don't think we would issue a blanket directive.”
That's left Deguerin's client feeling unjustly vilified and betrayed.