Fast & Furious, Part Infinity

[Telarus]

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/worse-than-gunwalker-state-dept-allegedly-sold-guns-to-zetas/

    "From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas."

The U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program is run from the U.S. State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. It regulates and licenses private U.S. companies' overseas sales of weapons and other defense materials, defense services, and military training.

...

If these allegations can be verified: what on Earth was the State Department thinking supplying the direct sale of military weapons to a cartel front company? Weapons that were then smuggled out of the very airport used by the Drug Enforcement Agency charged with bringing down the cartels?

...

    The program is set up so that the sale of U.S. guns to foreign entities involve direct negotiations with the governments of those countries purchasing the weapons. The description of the program specifically states that it regulates the sale of U.S. firearms to other countries or international organizations.

    How, then, did a drug cartel purchase weapons through this program when it is neither an international organization nor a government?

At The Truth About Guns, Brad Kozak opines:

    The ATF was not the only ones running guns to Mexico. Apparently the State Department was playing, too. And then consider this angle — was the State Department competing with the ATF for the hearts and minds of the Mexican drug trade?

    ...

    If the ATF is supplying the Sinaloas (with Calderón's tacit approval and/or help) and State is playing for the Zetas, where does that leave the rest of America?

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/13/Drug-cartel-sending-US-weapons-to-Mexico/UPI-15361310570544/

http://www.elpasotimes.com/communities/ci_18465182

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/how-did-the-zetas-drug-cartel-obtain-weapons-for-criminal-activity

#WarOnEverything

[Cain]

I believe this is part of a covert operation to use gun sales to Mexico to track and monitor the actions of the Cartels.

We know US intelligence and the military are already involved in the fight, backing the Mexican government.  And the Mexicans did carry out a massive raid against several key cartels recently....

Follow the guns, find the muscle of the cartels.  Break their paramilitary forces, break their ability to fight, intimidate and coerce Mexican authorities. 

[Jenne]

Was it here? or somewhere else? that someone brought up the lail--no it was Daily Show or Colbert Report--anyway, there was a severe clusterfuck over this where the FBI lost track of the damned guns--there was a double-blind situation where they didn't know what was being sold to whom or whatever and upshot is that their intended purpose never got played out because they weren't bothering to gather or SHARE the intelligence that was meant to be gained by doing this very stupid maneuver.

Incompetency and gun-running.  Mixed with Mexican drug cartels.

What could possibly go wrong?  

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Well after you throw in a few live chickens, a mariachi band and some tequila at least you'll have one hell of a watch party.... 

[Telarus]

Maybe I title the thread wrong. This article isn't about the ATF 'sting' (Fast & Furious, part 1), where they were allowing guns to be sold to the Sinaloas by small-business gun-shop owners, and then 'letting' them walk across the border.

This is another faction (Dept of Defense) allowing a shell corporation to buy guns for a rival drug cartel, the Zetas, using a program meant only for 'state actors'.

While I agree with Cain on the possible aim of the ATF 'sting', the fact that this other department (the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program) required negotiation with government representatives from the places buying the arms from the private US contractors....

Well, that's a big hurdle for even a massive drug cartel with a shell company to get around. I think that distinguishes itself from F&F pt1 in this way, which is why I mentioned it.

Probably could have been clearer with the OP, sorry.

[Cain]

Turns out this has been going on since the Bush years, at least

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/ap-sources-bush-era-1194310.html

The federal government under the Bush administration ran an operation that allowed hundreds of guns to be transferred to suspected arms traffickers — the same tactic that congressional Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama's administration for using, two federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and other Republicans have been hammering the Obama Justice Department over the practice known as "letting guns walk." The congressional target has been Operation Fast and Furious, which was designed to track small-time gun buyers at several Phoenix-area gun shops up the chain to make cases against major weapons traffickers. In the process, federal agents lost track of many of the more than 2,000 guns linked to the operation.

When Bush, a Republican, was president, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Tucson, Ariz., used a similar enforcement tactic in a program it called Operation Wide Receiver. The fact that there were two such ATF investigations years apart in separate administrations raises the possibility that agents in still other cases may have allowed guns to "walk."

[Telarus]

Damn. I had wondered about that. Thanks Cain.

[Cain]

No problem.

Also, some of those weapons have finally turned up:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111009,0,6431788.story

High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF's Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers' tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

"These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there," said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. "But that's only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through."

Torres Marrufo, also known as "the Jaguar," has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel chieftain Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo's homes April 30 when Mexican police inspected the property. It was unoccupied but "showed signs of recent activity," they said.