The Washington Post is reporting that Mexican Police are estimating that 100 percent of guns used in drug-related killings in Mexico are smuggled in from the Untied States.

The guns pass into Mexico through the “ant trail,” the nickname for the steady stream of people who each slip two or three weapons across the border every day. The “ants” — along with larger smuggling operations — are feeding a rapidly expanding arms race between Mexican drug cartels.

The U.S. weapons — as many as 2,000 enter Mexico each day, according to a Mexican government study — are crucial tools in an astoundingly barbaric war between rival cartels that has cost 4,000 lives in the past 18 months and sent law enforcement agencies in Washington and Mexico City into crisis mode.

In 2006, up to 2,500 drug related homicides occurred in Mexico.  This year, as of July, more than 1,400 people have been killed.

The drug market in Mexico is estimated to be valued at $23 Billion.