Project Fast and Furious

US guns flooding over the border 6/20/2011

Congressional report finds US government program intentionally let guns flow into hands of drug cartels. President Felipe Calderón and Mexican lawmakers demanded the US government stem the flow of weapons from the United States into the country after a US Congressional report found that agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, or the ATF intentionally allowed firearms into Mexico, and into the hands of drug gangs.

In an operation dubbed “Fast and Furious” agents from the ATF, a unit of the Justice Department, let the firearms – including AK-47s – across the border in a controversial attempt to track drug-traffickers.

According to the Congressional report, “Halting US Firearms Trafficking into Mexico,” 70 percent of the 29,284 firearms recovered in Mexico that were submitted for tracing came from the United States.

“Congress has been virtually moribund while powerful Mexican drug trafficking organizations continue to gain unfettered access to military-style firearms coming from the United States,” said Sen. Feinstein of California.

“It is still too easy for Mexican drug lords to get their hands on deadly military-grade weapons within our borders,” said New York Senator Schumer. “We need to redouble our efforts to keep violent firearms out of the hands of these traffickers.”

The US has some of the most relaxed gun laws of any industrialized nation.

The agents were using a tactic called letting “guns walk,” by allowing guns recovered at crime scenes to be resold onto the market, and into the hands of some suspected traffickers. They used frontmen to resell the weapons, hoping they could trace them to members of drug cartels.

Some agents blew the whistle earlier this year, after border agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout with alleged Mexican gang members in December. Two of the weapons sold under the operation were found at the crime scene.

“We weren´t giving guns to people who were hunting bears. We were giving guns to people who were killing people,” Peter Forcelli, group supervisor at the ATF told a committee at the House of Representatives.

President of Mexico´s Senate, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, urged the United States to stop US weapons from making their way across the border during a meeting in Washington in June.

During a recent visit to California, El presidente Calderón asked: “Why does this arms business continue?” “I´ll say it openly: it´s for money, for the profits that it gives the weapons industry.”

Drug violence in Mexico has become increasingly severe with killings related to the drug trade up 60 percent in 2010 over the previous year. Since Calderón took office and instated a military response to the drug violence, more than 34,600 people have been killed, according to the report. -Latinamerica Press.

….Peter Forcelli made the gps tracking device from stuff bought at radio shack buuut the batteries died before they got into Mexico haha