Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Project Gunwalker Scandal continues to pay bloody dividends. Are you happy yet, Obama?


Smuggled NM guns tied to cartel murders.

KRQE story by Crystal Gutierrez & Alex Tomlin. Remember the Feds had been watching them "for over a year."

COLUMBUS, N.M. (KRQE) - Federal documents state a gun smuggling operation allegedly run by three public officials from a tiny New Mexico border town had ties to Mexican drug cartels and some of the weapons were used in several murders.

Last week, federal agents raided Columbus in Luna County arresting Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Village Trustee Blas Gutierrez and Chief of Police Angelo Vega, along with several others. In total, 11 people are accused of smuggling guns into the Mexican cities of Cíudad Juarez and Palomas.

Palomas sits just across the border from Columbus.

For the first time the federal arresting agencies have officially said Espinoza and Gutierrez helped traffic firearms to Mexican drug cartels. Vega and eight others are charged as conspirators.

Prosecutors said the smuggling operation helped the cartels wage their bloody turf wars with shocking efficiency. Federal documents track the guns from New Mexico to the streets of Cíudad Juarez and Palomas and the crimes committed with the weapons.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or ATF have connected some of the guns to at least eight recent murders in those cities.

Mexican authorities are looking into whether the 11 should be charged in those crimes.

The ATF said guns from the smuggling operation were also seized during drug raids and turned up in a bust of a kidnapping operation in Juarez.

2 comments:

W W Woodward said...

ATF allowed those illegally purchased guns to cross the border for at least 13 months before taking enforcement action. Read the indictment.

What do you want to bet that the feds who made the decision to allow the sales and transportation ever stand beside their 11 co-conspirators in federal court as defendants?

The feds are making a big deal out of the fact that the Columbus 11 included corrupt public servants.

Hello, Mr Pot, let me introduce you to Mr Kettle. Y'all get together and decide whose the blackest.

[W3]

Dennis308 said...

This kind of corruption is widespread all along the Border(see McAllen and Donna,TX. to name but two documented cases)

Dennis
III
Texas