By Adry Torres For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:16 EDT, 15 July 2022 | Updated: 12:36 EDT, 15 July 2022

An American-made sniper rifle that can shoot between 400 to 600 bullets per minute was among the high-powered arsenal that was recovered by Mexican authorities following a war-like battle with an armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel that left two police officers wounded Tuesday.

Security forces recovered 10 powerful rifles, including the first shoulder fired semi-automatic Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber rifle, a machine gun 12 grenades and 72 rounds of ammunition following the arrest of 14 members of an armed wing that responds to the cartel faction operated by the four sons of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, who are otherwise known as 'Los Chapitos'.

The Barrett .50 rifle is developed by the Tennessee-based Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and sells for as much as $8,599.99.

Its bullets are powerful enough to knock down aircraft and can pierce through armored vehicles.

DailyMail.com reached out to Barrett Firearms Manufacturing for comment.

The Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber rifle (circled), American-made sniper rifle that can shoot between 400 to 600 bullets per minute, was among the high-powered arsenal that was recovered by Mexican authorities following a war-like battle with an armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel that left two police officers wounded Tuesday

Joaquín Guzmán-López (left) and Archivaldo Guzman-Salazar (right) are two of El Chapo's four  sons who have control of the Sinaloa cartel the infamous drug lord serves a life sentence in the United States

Ovidio Guzmán-López (left) and Alfredo Guzmán-Salazar (right) are two of El Chapo's four sons who are wanted by U.S. authorities

Daniel García, the director of Mexican private security firm Industrial Security Multisystems Group, told Milenio newspaper that the Barrett .50 can reach targets that are as far away as 5,900 feet.

'It's for long range shots. They have a magazine of 10, or in some cases of five useful cartridges, and it is not a repetition weapon, but rather a precision one. It is mainly used for long-range targets,' he explained.

'It uses copper-jacketed bullets with a steel core and is capable of piercing armor, level five or six, and even walls. It is a very powerful weapon,' García added.

National Guard and anti-riot police stand guard after a confrontation between alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel and police on the Mexico-Cuernavaca federal highway near the Mexico City town of San Miguel Topilejo on Tuesday. Two cops were wounded and 14 members of the cartel's armed wing were taken into custody

Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán is serving a life sentence in the United States

The Barrett .50 rifle is developed by the Tennessee-based Barrett Firearms Manufacturing. Its bullets are powerful enough to knock down aircraft and can pierce through armored vehicles

With Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán serving a life sentence in a United States prison, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations, is now under the direction of his four sons, who are known as 'Los Chapitos'.

Joaquín Guzmán-López and Ovidio Guzmán-López are two of El Chapo's five children from his first marriage with Alejandrina Salazar.

The infamous drug lord's two other sons, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Guzmán, from his marriage to Griselda López, make up the half of the organization's leadership which has been at odds with El Chapo's former righthand man and cartel co-founder, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada.

In December 2021, the U.S. government announced it was offering $5 million rewards for each of the four men.

According to U.S. federal law enforcement authorities, Los Chapitos assumed leadership roles within the Sinaloa Cartel along with their uncle Aureliano ‘El Guano’ Guzmán and Zambada after el Chapo was arrested in Mexico in 2014 and was then extradited in 2016 to New York.

The Department of Treasury identified Ovidio Guzmán-López, Joaquín Guzmán-López and Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán as leaders of a cartel faction. All three had been previously indicted on federal drug trafficking charges.

‘For years, the United States has been in the grips of the worst drug epidemic in its history, driven by overdose deaths involving heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl and an increase in methamphetamine availability,’ the Department of State said in a statement. ‘Transnational criminal organizations are largely responsible for bringing these drugs and related violence to our communities.’

Ovidio Guzmán López, Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán were all sanctioned by the Department of Treasury. 

A weapon of choice for Mexican cartels, the Barrett .50 caliber rifle was used by alleged Jalisco New Generation Cartel henchmen in the failed assassination plot of Mexico City police chief Omar García Harfuch on June 26, 2020.

García Harfuch was wounded. A woman who was standing in the vicinity of the attack and two police officers were killed.

The rifle was abandoned by the fleeing assassins and seized by the police.

A Sinaloa Cartel operative was captured on video manning a Barrett .50 rifle on October 17, 2019, after the criminal organization responded with a military-style offensive in the western city of Culiacán.

Fearing that innocent civilians could be lost, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the military to free El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzmán, who was briefly detained as security forces were executing an arrest warrant for extradition to the United States.

Jalisco New Generation Cartel fighters also used the semi-automatic rifle to knock down a helicopter operated by the Michoacán State Attorney General's Office during a battle between the cartel and authorities in the municipality of La Huacana in September 2016. The pilot and three cops were killed. 

Barrett Firearms Manufacturing is among 11 gun makers that the Mexican government is suing in a Massachusetts federal court for  $10 billion, accusing them of being responsible for the deadly flood of weapons across the border.

As part of the lawsuit filed in August 2021, Mexico alleges that the companies have undermined strict gun laws by designing, marketing and distributing military style assault weapons in ways they knew would arm drug cartels, fueling murders and kidnappings.

It alleges that more than 500,000 guns are smuggled annually from the United States into Mexico, of which more than 68 percent are produced by the gun manufacturing companies it sued, including Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt's Manufacturing Co. and Glock Inc.

'They know how criminals are getting their guns,' Jonathan Lowy, a lawyer for Mexico, argued during the 90-minute virtual hearing in April. 'They could stop and they choose to be willfully blind to the facts.'

Mexico estimates that weapons manufactured by the 11 Massachusetts-based gun makers were allegedly used in at least 17,000 homicides in 2019. 

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