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12/18/12, "Fast and Furious gun found at Mexican crime scene," CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson
"Another weapon from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives agency's controversial Operation Fast and Furious was
recently recovered at a Mexican crime scene,
CBS News has learned.
Congressional investigators say the crime scene was likely where a
recent shootout took place between reported Sinaloa drug cartel members
and the Mexican military, in which Sinaloa beauty queen Maria Susana
Flores Gamez and four others were killed.
According to
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the Justice Department did not notify
Congress of the Fast and Furious firearm recovery in November, even
though Grassley has requested an accounting of weapons that surface from
the case. During Fast and Furious, ATF allowed more than 2,000 weapons,
including giant .50-caliber guns, to fall into the hands of Mexican
drug cartels and other criminals. Other so-called "gunwalking"
operations by ATF let hundreds more guns hit the street. Most of them
have never been recovered.
The
latest known recovery is a Romanian AK-47-type WASR-10 rifle. It was
picked up at a crime scene Nov. 23 in Ciudad Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Mexico.
That's the same area and weekend of the shootout involving Flores
Gamez's death. A trace report shows the rifle was purchased by Uriel
Patino, the Fast and Furious suspect who allegedly bought more than 700
weapons while under ATF's watch. Records show Patino bought the rifle
and nine other semi-automatic rifles at an Arizona gun shop March 16,
2010.
Grassley has sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting more
information, and asking whether the officials were planning to notify
Congress "that a Fast and Furious weapon had been recovered."
The Justice Department provided no immediate response to CBS News.
Two
other Fast and Furious AK-47-type rifles were found at the murder scene
of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. In September
2011, ATF estimated that Fast and Furious weapons had been recovered at
eight violent crimes in Mexico. As CBS News has reported, guns
trafficked under ATF's watch in a separate investigation were also used
in the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in February 2011. The families of both Terry and Zapata are suing government officials for alleged negligence and related claims." via Free Republic
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