An arsenal of weapons, including two high-powered .50-caliber sniper rifles,  seized by Mexican soldiers earlier this year in Juarez, is part of an illegal flow of weapons from the United States, ATF officials told the El Paso Times on Tuesday.

"We are trying to ease the violence ... The violence (in Mexico) is with weapons coming from this country," Special Agent Tom Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, told the Times.

Crowley said ATF has added investigators along the border and that there is improved cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities, the paper said. 

ATF officials said the Mexican army on Feb. 13 seized 25 rifles, including the two sniper rifles, five pistols and body armor from a Juarez safe house -- weapons that have been traced to "straw purchases" in Arizona, the Times reported.

Just last week, ATF agents in Arizona arrested Victor Varela, the alleged leader of a gun-trafficking ring suspected of supplying weapons to the Juarez drug cartel in Palomas, Mexico, according to the Times.

And last month, ATF agents in El Paso arrested three men for allegedly trying to smuggle a .50-caliber rifle and 23 other weapons into Mexico, the paper said. 

A senior U.S. counterdrug official has described the violence currently raging in the border cities of Juarez and Palomas as a battle for control of the drug trade between the Sinaloa drug cartel and the Juarez drug cartel, which is allied with the Gulf cartel and the Zetas, a group of assassins formed by Mexican army deserters, the Times reported.

The gun trade in Mexico, which has strict gun-control laws, can be lucrative, with weapons bought in the United States selling for four to six times as much south of the border, according to the Times.

ATF officials said the .50-caliber rifles, which can blast through bulletproof vehicles, are selling for $14,000 to $16,000 apiece in Mexico, the Times reported. 

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