Fast and Furious gun turns up after Mexican resort shootout
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN) -- A dramatic shootout between authorities and suspected cartel gunmen at a Mexican seaside resort this month has ties to a botched U.S. gun operation.
A U.S. official said Tuesday that investigators have traced at least one firearm recovered at a December 18 gunfight in Puerto Peñasco, across from the Arizona border, to Operation Fast and Furious.
That's the disastrous operation run by agents in the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Agents allowed suspected gun smugglers to buy about 2,000 firearms with the goal of trying to find and prosecute high-level traffickers. They couldn't track the firearms and most are believed to have ended up with cartels and gangsters in Mexico.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/31/justice/mexican-shootout-fast-and-furious/
Story previously reported on KPBS and AP and Latin American Herald Tribune.
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Project Gunrunner is a project of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico, in an attempt to deprive the Mexican drug cartels of weapons.[1]
The primary tactic of Project Gunrunner is interdiction of straw purchasers and unlicensed dealers to prevent legal guns from entering the black market; between 2005 and 2008, 650 such cases involving 1,400 offenders and 12,000 firearms were referred for prosecution.[2] However, other tactics ("gunwalking" and "controlled delivery"
have led to controversy.
In early 2011, the project became controversial when it was revealed that Operation Wide Receiver (2006–2007) and Operation Fast and Furious (2009–2010) had allowed guns to "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gunrunner
Issa couldn't find his ass from a hole in the ground!
