Hundreds of AK-type rifles were allowed to cross the border into Mexico under Operation Fast and Furious.
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A new report from Judicial Watch revealed that recently-released Justice Department documents confirm what many in the firearms community have suspected, that more guns from the Operation Fast and Furious debacle are showing up at Mexican crime scenes, and are involved in homicides in that country.
Judicial Watch found that 94 of the Fast and Furious guns had been recovered over the past three years. However, that still leaves hundreds of guns that were allowed to “walk” by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the mismanaged sting operation. According to Judicial Watch, the recovered guns include 82 rifles and a dozen handguns.
Guns linked to the operation have been “tied to at least 69 killings,” according to Judicial Watch. That is on top of the estimated 200 slayings that had occurred in Mexico that reportedly involved guns from the operation.
No government official has ever been prosecuted or fired from their job over the fiasco. However, some people did resign, a couple of others retired and still others were transferred to different jobs in the ATF.
“Violent recoveries”
Judicial Watch got the documents under a Freedom of Information Act request back in mid-March. The group wanted information relating to the recovery of any Fast and Furious firearms. Among the 94 guns mentioned in the documents, 20 were reportedly involved in “violent recoveries” that apparently involved mass murders.
One of those firearms, a 7.62mm rifle, was recovered at the scene of a mass shooting in which 22 people were killed in Tlatlaya, Estado de Mexico. Two more rifles of the same caliber were recovered at a different gun battle that resulted in the deaths of a Mexican Federal Police officer and 42 suspected drug cartel members.
One .50-caliber rifle was recovered when authorities arrested Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman in January of this year.
Judicial Watch has been dogging this case for a long time. The group said this operation will be part of President Barack Obama’s legacy.
“These documents show President Obama’s legacy includes one of gunrunning and violence in Fast and Furious,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton observed. “As the production of documents from the ATF continues, we expect to see even further confirmation of Obama’s disgraced former Attorney General Eric Holder’s prediction that Fast and Furious guns will be used in crimes for years to come.”
Holder in contempt
Holder was held in Contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas for thousands of documents relating to the House investigation of Fast and Furious. President Obama extended executive privilege in an attempt to protect the documents, but ultimately a federal court decided against that effort.
There is still an active lawsuit asking for records of all communications between the Justice Department and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that relate to settlement discussions in the Contempt of Congress lawsuit that was filed in 2012, Judicial Watch noted.
Fast and Furious is believed to have allowed more than 2,000 firearms to be “walked” into the hands of cartel gunmen as part of an ATF effort to track the guns. During hearings on the failed operation, one ATF official told the House Oversight Committee that the operation seemed like “the perfect storm of idiocy.”
TGM and its predecessor, Gun Week, covered the Fast and Furious scandal for more than two years. The operation unraveled following the December 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in the mountains of southern Arizona. Two of the rifles linked to the operation were recovered at the crime scene.
An attempt by the Obama administration to shift blame for the gun trafficking operation to Arizona gun dealers fell apart. A government whistleblower was interviewed by then-CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, blowing the lid off the case. The House Oversight Committee, under then-Chairman Darrell Issa, held a series of embarrassing hearings on the operation.
