Mexican President demands US apologize for the botched Sting Fast and Furious

The Mexican president has demanded that the United States apologize for the fast and furious scandal that he claims was a a violation of Mexican sovereignty.

“On Monday, López Obrador first brought up the U.S. gun-running sting while discussing potential corruption tied to the drug trafficking arrest of Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s security minister between 2006 and 2012,” Newsweek reported. The Mexican president also demanded explanations from his predecessor, Felipe Calderón as to his involvement in the failed sting that ended up in the arrest of a Mexican general Garcia Luna and death of Mexicans.

Legal proceedings, civil and criminal have been ongoing in the United States since the scheme was exposed. The case of border patrol agent Brian Terry blew the fiasco wide-open.

From the Marines to the Border Patrol, Agent Brian A. Terry was killed during the Sting.

U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry made the ultimate sacrifice. On Dec 15, 2010, Michigan native, Border Patrol Agent #BrianTerry was shot and killed near Rio Rico, Arizona, while attempting to apprehend a group of armed subjects.

Terry’s killing exposed the “Fast and Furious” operation, in which U.S. federal agents allowed criminals to buy firearms with the intention of tracking them to criminal organizations, NBC news reported.

On December 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was conducting operations as a member of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) in the Nogales, Arizona area of operations. Agent Terry’s team encountered five individuals, at least two of whom were armed with rifles, in the “Peck Well” area near Rio Rico, Arizona. During the attempt to arrest these individuals, the agents and suspects fired shots. Agent Terry was mortally wounded during the exchange of gunfire and succumbed to his injuries on December 15, 2010.

Agent Terry, a native of Flat Rock, Michigan, entered on duty as a member of the 699th Session of the Border Patrol Academy on July 23, 2007. After graduation, he was assigned to the Tucson Border Patrol Sector.

Prior to joining the Border Patrol, Agent Terry served in the U.S. Marine Corps and as a Police Officer in his home state of Michigan. Agent Terry is survived by his parents, his brother and two sisters.

Feb 2019, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes was found guilty by a U.S. District Court jury after brief deliberations, Tucson TV station KVOA reported. A sentencing date wasn’t immediately available.

Osorio-Arellanes was among seven people charged in the slaying of 40-year-old Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry north of Nogales, Arizona. He was arrested by Mexican authorities in April 2017 and extradited to the U.S. last August to stand trial.

For years Agent Terry’s family, considered by DOJ as a “public relations nuisance” requested that documents sealed by Obama on Operation Fast and Furious be released. Some documents were released, revealing an orchestrated effort by former president Barack Obama’s Justice Department to conceal any link between agent Brian Terry’s death and the botched firearms case, according to a USA report.

The family remains relentless and still request more information through the facebook site of Remembering Agent Terry.

A Review of ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious and Related Matters

On October 31, 2009, special agents working in the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) received information from a local gun store about the recent purchases of multiple AK- 47 style rifles by four individuals. Agents began investigating the purchases and soon came to believe that the men were so-called “straw purchasers” involved in a large-scale gun trafficking organization responsible for buying guns for transport to violent Mexican drug trafficking organizations. This investigation was later named “Operation Fast and Furious.”1

By the time ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona (U.S. Attorney’s Office) publicly announced the indictment in the case on January 25, 2011, agents had identified more than 40 subjects believed to be connected to a trafficking conspiracy responsible for purchasing over 2,000 firearms for approximately $1.5 million in cash. The vast majority of the firearms purchased by Operation Fast and Furious subjects were AK-47 style rifles and FN Herstal 5.7 caliber pistols. During the course of the investigation, ATF agents seized only about 100 of the firearms purchased, the result of a strategy jointly pursued by ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that deferred taking overt enforcement action against the individual straw purchasers while seeking to build a case against the leaders of the organization.

Numerous firearms bought by straw purchasers were later recovered by law enforcement officials at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States. One such recovery occurred in connection with the tragic shooting death of a federal law enforcement agent, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry. On January 16, 2010, one of the straw purchasers, Jaime Avila, purchased three AK-47 style rifles from a Phoenix-area gun store. ATF agents learned about that purchase 3 days later and, consistent with the investigative strategy in the case, made no effort to locate Avila or seize the rifles although ATF had identified Avila as a suspect in November 2009. Two of the three rifles purchased by Avila on January 16 were recovered 11 months later at the scene of the murder of Agent Terry, who was shot and killed on December 14, 2010, as he tried to arrest persons believed to be illegally entering the United States.

The day after and in response to Agent Terry’s murder, ATF agents arrested Avila. Several weeks later, on January 19, 2011, the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted 20 Operation Fast and Furious straw purchasers and gun traffickers. As of August 1, 2012, 14 defendants, including Avila, have entered guilty pleas to one or more counts of the indictment.

Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was assigned to investigate the murder of Agent Terry, the senior leadership of ATF and the Department of Justice (Department or DOJ) took little action in the immediate aftermath of Agent Terry’s death to learn more about an ATF investigation that involved the trafficking of approximately 2,000 weapons over many months, and how guns purchased by a previously-identified subject of that investigation ended up being recovered at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder. Shortly after Agent Terry’s death, stories began appearing on the Internet alleging that ATF had allowed firearms to “walk” to Mexico, and that one of those firearms may have been linked to the death of a federal law enforcement officer.

The flaws in Operation Fast and Furious became widely publicized as a result of the willingness of a few ATF agents to publicly report what they knew about it, and the conduct of the investigation became the subject of a Congressional inquiry. On January 27, 2011, Senator Charles E. Grassley wrote to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations that ATF had “sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers,” who then transported the firearms throughout the southwest border area and into Mexico. On February 4, 2011, the Department responded in writing by denying the allegations and asserting that “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.” However, after examining how Operation Fast and Furious and other ATF firearms trafficking investigations were conducted, the Department withdrew the February 4 letter on December 2, 2011, because it contained inaccuracies.

Also on January 27, 2011, Senator Grassley’s staff brought the allegations of one ATF agent to the attention of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). We interviewed the agent and began a preliminary inquiry into the matter. On February 28, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder requested the OIG to conduct a review of Operation Fast and Furious, and we agreed to conduct the review. This report describes the results of the OIG’s review.

During the course of our review we received information about other ATF firearms trafficking investigations that raised questions about how those investigations were conducted. This report describes one of them, Operation Wide Receiver. We plan to issue a separate report on at least one other ATF investigation that involves an individual suspected of transporting grenade components into Mexico, converting them into live grenades, and then supplying them to drug cartels.
Additionally, we are reviewing allegations that two ATF agents who publicly testified about their concerns regarding Operation Fast and Furious were reassigned to positions within ATF that could have subjected them to retaliation.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the FBI.

I. Methodology of the Investigation

……We also requested from the White House any communications concerning Operation Fast and Furious during the relevant time period that were sent to or received from (a) certain ATF employees, including Special Agent in Charge Newell, and (b) certain members of the White House National Security Staff, including Kevin O’Reilly. In response to our request, the White House informed us that the only responsive communications it had with the ATF employees were those between Newell and O’Reilly. The White House indicated that it previously produced those communications to Congress in response to a similar request, and the White House provided us with a copy of those materials. The White House did not produce to us any internal White House communications, noting that “the White House is beyond the purview of the Inspector General’s Office, which has jurisdiction over Department of Justice programs and personnel.” For the Complete report from Justice.gov VISIT HERE