LA Times: U.S. gun-tracing operation let firearms into criminal hands

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guns-mexico-20110304,0,3428784,print.story

U.S. gun-tracing operation let firearms into criminal hands

A federal operation aimed at tracing weapons to Mexican drug cartels lost track of hundreds, including two guns found at the scene of a Border Patrol agent's killing in Arizona.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

6:13 PM PST, March 3, 2011


A federal operation that allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so they could be traced to the higher echelons of Mexican drug cartels has lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent in December.

The investigation, known as Operation Fast and Furious, was conducted even though U.S. authorities suspected that some of the weapons might be used in crimes, according to a variety of federal agents who voiced anguished objections to the operation.

Many of the weapons have spread across the most violence-torn states in Mexico, with at least 195 linked to some form of crime or law enforcement action, according to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity and The Times.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the operation, said that 1,765 guns were sold to suspected smugglers during a 15-month period of the investigation. Of those, 797 were recovered on both sides of the border, including 195 in Mexico after they were used in crimes, collected during arrests or intercepted through other law enforcement operations....

[Vinee]

1. Shit meet fan, fan shit.

[one-eyed fat man]

2. nah, it's ATF you're talking about.

Anyplace else Melson, Gillett and the rest of top level ATF weenies responsible for this fiasco would be cleaning out their desks, taking down their "Love Me" walls, cadging a couple staplers and some office supplies on their way out the door.

Thousands of guns dealers didn't want to sell, ordered across the border by top level management bureaucrats against the advice of the field agents. They stonewalled every probe, lied to the Mexican government, and with ATF's track record they will get promoted while the whistle blowers in Phoenix and the Southwest office will have their careers ruined.