Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House investigating committee, and Sen. In Washington, ATF officials declined to comment. According to two sources close to a congressional investigation into Fast and Furious, the authorities checked with the ATF and were told to release him with the weapons because the ATF was still hoping to track the guns to cartel members. immigration officers reportedly stopped Avila at the Arizona border with the two semiautomatics and 30 other weapons. Sometime in spring or early summer 2010 - the exact date is unknown - U.S.
The firearms consisted of FN 5.7 pistols, 1 Barrett 50 BMG rifle, AK-47 variant rifles, Ruger 9mm handguns, Colt 38 supers, etc.…” They never did.īetween November 2009 and June 2010, according to an ATF agent’s email to William Newell, then the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, Avila walked away with 52 firearms after he “paid approximately $48,000 cash. Howard faxed a copy of the sale paperwork to the ATF “after the firearms were gone,” assuming they would catch up later. Under the Fast and Furious protocol, agents were supposed to use the video cameras, surveillance, informants and law enforcement intelligence to follow the weapons and hope they led them to the drug cartels.īut no agents were watching on the hidden cameras or waiting outside to track the firearms when Avila showed up. Howard recalled that a chubby, bald and “very confident” man named Jaime Avila walked into the store on Jan. “I want to help ATF,” he said, “but not at the risk of agents’ safety because I have some very close friends that are U.S. At the nearby Scottsdale Gun Club, the proprietor sent an email to Agent David Voth. Other firearms dealers shared his concerns. Howard had expressed concerns about the cooperation he was providing and whether he was endangering himself or implicating himself in a criminal investigation.” And when arrests were not forthcoming, “every passing week I was more stunned,” he said.Īccording to a confidential memo written by assistant federal prosecutor Emory Hurley, “Mr. He said he supported law enforcement, and never imagined a thousand weapons, or half of the entire Fast and Furious inventory, would “walk” out of his store. Howard spoke to a reporter for the first time in depth about why he cooperated with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He said he fell into the gun-dealing business 21 years ago only to help support his career as a flight instructor. His love is helicopters - a former Army pilot, he gives flying lessons. Howard said he does not own a gun, does not hunt, and does not belong to the National Rifle Assn. The Mexican government maintains that an undisclosed number of Fast and Furious weapons have been found at some 170 crime scenes in their country. They have not identified those cases either. They said another 28 Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at violent crimes in Mexico. They have yet to provide any more details. The Department of Justice in Washington said last week that one other Fast and Furious firearm turned up at a violent crime scene in this country.
As the case of the two Lone Wolf AK-47s tragically illustrates, the ATF, with a limited force of agents, did not keep track of them.
But the agency’s plan to trace the guns to the cartels never worked. Some 2,000 firearms from the Lone Wolf Trading Company store and others in southern Arizona were illegally sold under an ATF program called Fast and Furious that allowed “straw purchasers” to walk away with the weapons and turn them over to criminal traffickers. The bandits left Osorio-Arellanes behind and escaped across the desert, tossing away two AK-47 semiautomatics from Howard’s store. But Terry was bleeding badly, and he died in his colleague’s arms. Tall and nearly 240 pounds, Terry was too heavy to carry. “I think I’m paralyzed.” A bullet had pierced his aorta. “I’m hit!” he cried.Ī fellow agent cradled his friend. Agent Brian Terry - 40, single, a former Marine - also went down. One of the alleged bandits, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, a 33-year-old Mexican from Sinaloa, was wounded in the abdomen and legs. One agent fired from his sidearm, another with his M-4 rifle. According to a Border Patrol “Shooting Incident” report, the agents fired two rounds of bean bags from a shotgun.
0 kommentar(er)
