BATF Arms Drug Cartels,
Aids Arms Flow to Mexico
In one of the most boneheaded plans to ever come out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) the agency allowed known straw-man purchases to cross the border into Mexico. This means the BATF has armed the drug cartels with almost 2,000 firearms.
Dubbed Project Fast and Furious inside the BATF, the plan was to allow straw purchasers to acquire weapons and the BATF could track them to Mexican drug cartels. In theory, the BATF was responding to an inspector-general report that criticized the agency for focusing on "small time straw purchasers" and not major gunrunners. The operation was supposed to lead them to major players.
Instead of being fast and furious, the operation bogged down and continued for fifteen months. Local agents protested that weapons were crossing the border and they were told to let it happen. By the time word of the operation leaked out, BATF had let almost 2,000 firearms disappear into the hands of questionable buyers.
The accusations first arose on a BATF-insider Internet forum called www.CleanUpATF.org, where suggestions of these possible misdeeds were characterized as rumors, speculation and "word on the street." The forum is a gathering place for current and former BATF employees frustrated with BATF management and aimed at rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and managerial malfeasance.
The accusations first arose on a BATF-insider Internet forum called www.CleanUpATF.org, where suggestions of these possible misdeeds were characterized as rumors, speculation and "word on the street." The forum is a gathering place for current and former BATF employees frustrated with BATF management and aimed at rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and managerial malfeasance.