LA Times: ATF Fast And Furious Guns Turned Up In El Paso

A cache of assault weapons lost in the ATF’s gun-trafficking surveillance operation in Phoenix turned up in El Paso, where it was being stored for shipment to Mexico, according to new internal agency emails and federal court records.

Forty firearms along with ammunition magazines and ballistic vests were discovered in Texas in January 2010 during the early stages of the program, meaning the firearms vanished soon after the program began.

Under the program, dubbed Fast and Furious, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Phoenix field office allowed licensed firearm dealers to sell weapons to illegal “straw” buyers in the hope that the agents could track the weapons and arrest Mexican drug cartel leaders.

The El Paso case is the first example of Fast and Furious weapons turning up on this side of the border outside the Phoenix area.

To read to complete article in the L.A. Times, click here