Fast and Furious: DOJ Documents Reveal Rampant use of Weapons by Mexican Drug Cartels

According to the new records, over the past three years, a total of 94 Fast and Furious firearms have been recovered in Mexico City and 12 Mexican states, with the majority being seized in Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa.  Of the weapons recovered, 82 were rifles and 12 were pistols identified as having been part of the Fast and Furious program.  Reports suggest the Fast and Furious guns are tied to at least 69 killings.

Fast and Furious was a Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gunrunning” operation in which the Obama administration allowed guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels in the hope the weapons would be recovered at crime scenes.  Fast and Furious weapons have been implicated in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of other innocents in Mexico.  Prior reports tie Fast and Furious weapons to at least 200 deaths in Mexico alone.

The documents show 94 Fast and Furious firearms were seized, 20 were identified as being involved in “violent recoveries.”  The “violent recoveries” involved several mass killings:

• June 30, 2014 — One 7.62mm rifle recovered in Tlatlaya, Estado de Mexico.  This is the reported date and location of a shootout in which 22 people were killed.

• May 22, 2015 — Two 7.62mm rifles recovered from the site of a massive shootout in Rancho el Sol, Michoacán, that left one Mexican Federal Police officer and 42 suspected cartel members dead.

• August 7, 2015 — One 7.62mm rifle was among five firearms reported as recovered from an abandoned stolen vehicle in which three dead shooting victims were found in Parral, Chihuahua.

• January 29, 2013 — One 7.62mm rifle seized in Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco is reportedly related to the assassination of the town police chief, Luis Lucio Astorga and his bodyguard.

• January 11, 2016 — One .50 caliber rifle seized from the Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, where he was (re)arrested.

“These documents show President Obama’s legacy includes one of gunrunning and violence in Fast and Furious,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “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.”

In 2014, Judicial Watch litigation forced the disclosure of Fast and Furious documents to Congress after years of delay.

It has also been widely reported that many of the weapons that were part of the Fast and Furious program were distributed outside of Mexico, including to the Middle East. The Obama administration has been willing to push many rogue operations such as Fast and Furious when the legal limits of its power has been challenged. In the case of Fast and Furious, the Justice Department lost track of over 70% of the weapons that it distributed, with the inevitable outcome of mayhem and death.

While it is likely that the criminal Obama administration will never be held accountable for the illegal and immoral actions it has undertaken over the last seven years, it is at least some solace knowing that their criminal acts are receiving a bit of a public airing.

Source: judicialwatch.org