Revelations prompt review of firearms sting
By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY
Posted 10h 37m ago
Newly released U.S. records and declarations by a government whistle-blower appear to support allegations that government agents allowed hundreds of firearms to be smuggled across the Arizona border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Revelations by the Center for Public Integrity and CBS News on Thursday forced the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to call for an outside review, and are likely to accelerate a congressional investigation of the scandal.
The controversy has engulfed Project Gun Runner, an ATF enforcement campaign that was designed to dismantle Mexican gun-running operations, but purportedly wound up arming the cartels instead.
Investigators have confirmed that two weapons from the probe were found at the scene of a December gunbattle near Nogales, Ariz., that took the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona, ATF agents did not learn about the purchase of those guns until three days after the sale, and did not have the buyer under surveillance.
Justice Department authorities and their counterparts in Mexico have complained for years that cartel violence is fueled by a flood of weapons — mostly AK-47s — purchased in the United States and smuggled unlawfully across the border.
Project Gun Runner was created in 2006 to combat that threat by identifying and prosecuting firearms traffickers.
Dozens of straw buyers have been arrested, and ATF says more than 10,000 guns have been confiscated. However, the bureau fell under criticism from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General last year because Project Gun Runner was catching only straw buyers — relatively small fish in the smuggling business.
The newly released ATF documents make it clear the bureau sought to overcome such criticism by allowing firearm smugglers to make purchases in Arizona so they could be traced to bigger fish south of the border. In a case known as Operation Fast and Furious, gun dealers were encouraged to make sales to known traffickers who were sometimes wiretapped and under surveillance. Scores of transactions occurred involving more than 1,500 guns.
As a result of the strategy, assault rifles, potent .50 caliber guns and other weapons vanished into Mexico, where nearly 200 were recovered by police after violent crimes.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Idaho, the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has pressed ATF for two months to disclose details of Project Gun Runner and to justify a policy that allowed weapons into Mexico, where the government reported 28,0004 narco-related murders in four years.
ATF and Justice Department officials have denied that agents sanctioned or watched the smuggling of firearms across the border. However, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Grassley said there is "mounting evidence" that "walking" guns into Mexico was an approved strategy and that some agents were silenced when they protested that lives could be jeopardized.
One example: A March 12 (2010) e-mail written by Phoenix task force supervisor David Voth acknowledged a "schism" among his agents and warned those questioning the program that they might wind up as jail guards: "It may sound cheesy, but we are 'the tip of the ATF spear' when it comes to Southwest border firearms trafficking," Voth wrote. "If you don't think this is fun, you're in the wrong line of work — period."
One of the agents, John Dodson, has sought formal protection as a whistle-blower under federal law and is providing information to the Judiciary Committee. In an interview with the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, Dodson said, "With the number of guns we let walk, we'll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed. ... There is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone."
CBS News broadcast an interview with Dodson, and ATF surveillance video of suspects leaving an Arizona gun store with a case of assault rifles.
Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director, reacted by calling for an independent probe of Project Gun Runner. "This review will enable ATF to maximize its effectiveness when undertaking complex firearms trafficking investigations and prosecutions," he said.
In his letter to the bureau, Grassley said: "Getting to the truth of the ATF whistle-blower allegations in this case is extremely important to the family of Brian Terry, and should be important to all Americans."
In an interview with CBS News, Dodson said he was afraid that a U.S. law officer might be killed with a smuggled gun — and crushed when the fear apparently came true. Asked what he would say to Terry's family, he answered, "First of all, I'd tell them I'm sorry."
Wagner also reports for The Arizona Republic.
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