Sunday, March 6, 2011

Good Question from Robert Farago: ATF Informant Smuggled 40 Guns into Mexico. How?

Well, by way of the ATF, it seems.

As the ATF’s Gunwalker scandal continues to unfold, we’re getting a clearer picture of who did what when. For example, the scale of Operation Fast and Furious is starting to emerge. The word “thousands” seems appropriate to describe the number of American weapons that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed smugglers to smuggle to Mexican drug lords. elfronterizo.com.mx reports that an ATF informant videotaped a single delivery of 40 weapons. The feds showed the tape in court to prevent the Osorio brothers—the Texas men accused of purchasing the gun or guns used to kill ICE Special Agent Zapata —from receiving bail . . .

At the hearing on Friday, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), showed a video that supports the charges against the three suspects. The video was captured last November 9 with a hidden camera he was carrying the confidential informant who came to pick up a shipment of 40 guns, which was delivered by the Osorio brothers in the parking lot of a Walmart store in southern Dallas.

The informant recorded the 15 minutes it took to speak with Osorio, while they proceed to transfer the bags containing the weapons from his vehicle to the cabin of the trailer in which the employee of the ATF came to pick them up.


Let’s think about that for a moment. This revelation means that Osorio’s didn’t actually smuggle guns into Mexico. They gave them to an ATF informant who smuggled the guns to Mexican drug cartels. I repeat: the ATF was running the guy running the guns—and let him take the weapons into Mexico.

6 comments:

Travis McGee said...

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the boardroom at ATF HQ Monday morning!

Dakota said...

WOW ... just keeps getting better and better.

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

Let’s think about that for a moment. This revelation means that Osorio’s didn’t actually smuggle guns into Mexico. They gave them to an ATF informant who smuggled the guns to Mexican drug cartels. I repeat: the ATF was running the guy running the guns—and let him take the weapons into Mexico.

Are we positive that those 40 guns aren't these 40 guns?

The suspects gave the informant duffel bags containing 40 guns and instructed him to be at the border in eight or nine hours. The Lancaster men and the informant then parted ways. A government plane flew overhead to help with surveillance.

A few miles down Interstate 35, ATF agents boarded the informant’s semi and discovered that most of the guns’ serial numbers had been obliterated, a violation of federal law. Agents seized the guns before they reached the Mexican border.


That is, of course, not to say that there isn't plenty of unspeakable evil on BATFE's part here--I'm just not sure we can pin this on them.

Anonymous said...

So that load was stopped, what happened to previous loads, who moved those?

Anonymous said...

*long, slow whistle*.....wow.

Looks like I'd better pop some more popcorn....

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

So that load was stopped, what happened to previous loads, who moved those?

Exactly.