LA Times: "Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants"

[friendly_iconoclast]

latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cartel-guns-20110717,0,6972222.story

Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants


By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

July 17, 2011

Reporting from Washington


Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.

The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them.

The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun smuggling networks. The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico.

The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent.....

And the hits just keep on coming...

[DCKit]

1. Shocking. Really. I'm series. nt

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. Sorry, munged the link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cartel-guns-20110717,0,6972222.story

[spin]

3. This is approaching the unbelievable ...

and the scandal keeps growing day by day.

[TPaine7]

4. It's very overblown, an NRA plot to distract you from the gun stores on the border selling

machine guns, grenades, anti-aircraft rockets and even the occasional tank to the drug cartels.

[spin]

5. I wish it was just an NRA plot ...

Unfortunately, it isn't.

The firearms that were allowed to "walk" will produce a long blood trail in Mexico and possibly inside our nation in the years to come.

I definitely understand why our government wants to stop the straw purchase and smuggling of weapons from gun stores to criminal drug gangs and for sale to criminals in our nation and I fully support efforts to stop such activity.

It is possible that we could improve our existing laws to punish those who engage in straw purchasing in a manner that will help curtail such illegal sales while still allowing honest American citizens to buy firearms. But it is obvious that government agencies should never allow the purchase of these weapons in order to try to track who they go to when they realize that the weapons will be used to kill or injure innocent civilians in Mexico and the United States.

There are rumors that this policy was designed to support the creation another assault weapons ban. I seriously doubt that this is true, but if it is, all I can say is that the end does not justify the means.

It is also obvious that the drug cartels in Mexico are not obtaining machine guns, grenades, anti-aircraft rockets and tanks from mom and pop gun stores in the U.S. Many of these weapons may have originated in the U.S. and were provided to the Mexican government and other South American nations as military aid from our government. Corrupt officials and members of the Mexican military who deserted are largely responsible for the flow of these arms to the cartels.

In passing, I realize that you were being sarcastic. Unfortunately, many uninformed people may believe the propaganda that all the weapons that the drug cartels are using to slaughter people were bought in U.S. gun stores.

The media is doing their best to ignore this story and their preoccupation with the Casey Anthony story has enabled them to avoid many serious reports on this story. This fiasco is definitely not receiving the attention it deserves.

But the story grows day by day. It would be wise for the Obama administration to fully support investigations into this story and by doing so make sure that it doesn't turn into a major issue during the next election. It's obvious that mistakes were made and someone should be held responsible.

I can see how this situation could be used to improve our efforts on the border to stop arms smuggling. We should not be encouraging it.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. This incredible debacle....

...is unbelievable! For things to so completely f*#*ed it must have been planned that way; people must have worked to make this so dysfunctionally disastrous. The agencies involved need to be restaffed.

Any of the leadership that is involved in inter-agency communication needs to be flushed and sent to write parking tickets in Fairbanks.

My tax dollars at work.

x(