From the El Paso Times: Firearms connected to Operation Fast and Furious were used in the 2010 slaying of the brother of the former Chihuahua state attorney general, according to a U.S. congressional report.The
report said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
traced two of the weapons suspected in the murder of lawyer Mario
González Rodríguez, but did not report this fact to the Mexican
government until eight months after the tracing.
The joint
congressional staff report "The Department of Justice's Operation Fast
and Furious: Fueling Cartel Violence" was prepared for U.S. Sen.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., two
lawmakers who are spearheading an ongoing investigation into the ATF's
controversial operation.
"On October 21, 2010, drug cartel
members kidnapped Mario González Rodríguez from his office," according
to the 2011 congressional report. "At the time of the kidnapping, his
sister Patricia González Rodríguez was the attorney general of the
state of Chihuahua."
Mexican officials said Patricia González
Rodríguez was already on her way out because the new governor had been
installed and a new state prosecutor was going to be appointed.
"A few days after the kidnapping," the congressional report said, " a video surfaced on the Internet
in which Mario González Rodríguez sat handcuffed, surrounded by five
heavily armed men wearing masks, dressed in camouflage and bullet-proof
vest."...Then, Mexican federal authorities, following a
shootout with drug cartel suspects, seized 16 weapons and arrested
eight men in connection with Mario González Rodríguez's murder.
Mexican officials submitted information about the weapons to the ATF's e-trace system, and the ATF traced two AK-47s to Operation Fast and Furious.The
congressional report said that an ATF email indicated that ATF
officials in Phoenix who knew the two assault rifles came from the
controversial operation withheld the information from Mexican officials
until June 2011.
In congressional testimony, Carlos Canino, the
ATF's acting U.S. attaché in Mexico, said he's the one who finally
notified Mexican federal Attorney General Marisela Morales about the
weapons-tracing and their link to the death of Mario González
Rodríguez.
The report said Morales was shocked and remarked, "Hijole!," which the report said translates into "Oh, my."
Canino
feared an international incident might break out with Mexico if the
information leaked out to the news media instead of being sent through
government channels. He told U.S. lawmakers that he did not want to
undermine the trust that U.S. law enforcement had developed with their
Mexican counterparts in the war against the drug cartels....Weapons traced back to the operation have been
recovered in eight Mexican states and in Mexico City, and most of them
were destined for the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzmán, the congressional report said.
And, at least eight Fast
and Furious-connected weapons were recovered at crime scenes in Juárez
and four in Chihuahua City between 2010 and 2011.
The Sinaloa
cartel has been waging a bloody battle against the Carrillo Fuentes
organization that's killed nearly 9,500 people in Juárez alone since
2008.
On Jan. 13, 2010, the El Paso Police Department seized 40
rifles on the East Side that the congressional report said were
connected to Fast and Furious. Weapons connected to the operation also
were recovered in Columbus, N.M.
The number of Fast and Furious
weapons found at Mexican crime scenes could be higher because the
information provided to congressional investigators remains incomplete,
the report said.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20518887/report-guns-used-mexico-lawyers-murder-traced-atf-operation?source=rss_viewed
Again, please remember that one of the guns in Fast and Furious was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry:
http://www.odmp.org/officer/20596-border-patrol-agent-brian-a-terry
Please tell me once again why Eric Holder and members of the ATF are still not in jail and President Obama has not been impeached because of Fast and Furious?
You Know What To Do
1 hour ago
"Although plenty of evidence exists showing that two guns found at the scene of agent Brian Terry’s Dec. 14, 2010, slaying in Arizona were part of the operation, we found no federal ballistics information confirming that the bullet that killed Terry was fired from one of the guns."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politifact.com/texas/article/2012/feb/03/politifact-texas-digs-fast-and-furious/