The failed federal program to deliver guns illegally to Mexican drug cartels has been linked to the killing of another 69 people, including one massacre where 22 died, according to a new report from Judicial Watch, the big Washington watchdog organization.
Judicial Watch has been pursuing details of the Fast-and-Furious program since it was uncovered and revealed to have been a federal program to actually deliver to Mexican drug gangs illegal weaponry. The idea was that the government would track the guns as they traveled through the drug industry, but that simply didn’t happen almost all the time.
The issue suddenly was escalated into the top tier of headlines several years ago when it was revealed that Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed in a firefight with Mexican bandits armed with a gun that originally came courtesy of the U.S. government.
The new report from Judicial Watch reveals that from December 2012 to March 2014, 94 Fast and Furious weapons were seized, including one found in the hideout of drug lord “Chapo” Guzman.
It reported that documentation it has obtained show “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.”
Earlier, the guns had been linked to at least 200 deaths in Mexico alone.
The report said 20 of the weapons were identified “as being involved in ‘violent recoveries,’” Judicial Watch said.
Those include on June 30, 2014, when one 7.62mm rifle recovered in Tlatlaya, Estado de Mexico, on the date and at a location where a shootout left 22 dead.
Another case was on May 22, 2015, when two 7.62mm rifles were 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.
And on Jan. 11, 2016, a .50 caliber rifle was seized from the Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, where he was re-arrested, the report said.
“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 Judicial Watch report said.
The newest information comes from documents obtained under a March 17, 2016, Freedom of Information Act action involving the BATF.
“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.”
Judicial Watch said it still has further actions pending over Fast and Furious.
A federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s determination that shielded eight documents related to the government program from congressional and public view.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/obamas-fast-and-furious-guns-linked-to-another-69-dead/
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