I. Executive SummaryThe previous joint staff report entitled The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and
Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents chronicled Operation Fast and Furious, a reckless program
conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the
courageous ATF agents who came forward to expose it. Operation Fast and Furious made
unprecedented use of a dangerous investigative technique known as “gunwalking.” Rather than
intervene and seize the illegally purchased firearms, ATF’s Phoenix Field Division allowed
known straw purchasers to walk away with the guns, over and over again. As a result, the
weapons were transferred to criminals and Mexican Drug Cartels.
This report explores the effect of Operation Fast and Furious on Mexico. Its lethal drug
cartels obtained AK-47 variants, Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, .38 caliber revolvers, and FN
Five-seveNs from Arizona gun dealers who were cooperating with the ATF by continuing to sell
to straw purchasers identified in Operation Fast and Furious.
In late 2009, ATF officials stationed in Mexico began to notice a large volume of guns
appearing there that were traced to the ATF’s Phoenix Field Division. These weapons were
increasingly recovered in great numbers from violent crime scenes. ATF intelligence analysts
alerted Darren Gil, Attaché to Mexico, and Carlos Canino, Deputy Attaché, about the abnormal
number of weapons. Gil and Canino communicated their worries to leadership in Phoenix and
Washington, D.C., only to be brushed aside. Furthermore, ATF personnel in Arizona denied
ATF personnel in Mexico access to crucial information about the case, even though the operation
directly involved their job duties and affected their host country.
Rather than share information, senior leadership within both ATF and the Department of
Justice (DOJ) assured their representatives in Mexico that everything was “under control.” The
growing number of weapons recovered in Mexico, however, indicated otherwise. Two
recoveries of large numbers of weapons in November and December 2009 definitively
demonstrated that Operation Fast and Furious weapons were heading to Mexico. In fact, to date,
there have been 48 different recoveries of weapons in Mexico linked to Operation Fast and
Furious.
ATF officials in Mexico continued to raise the alarm over the burgeoning number of
weapons. By October 2010, the amount of seized and recovered weapons had “maxed out”
space in the Phoenix Field Division evidence vault.1 Nevertheless, ATF and DOJ failed to share
crucial details of Operation Fast and Furious with either their own employees stationed in
Mexico or representatives of the Government of Mexico. ATF senior leadership allegedly feared
that any such disclosure would compromise their investigation. Instead, ATF and DOJ
leadership’s reluctance to share information may have only prolonged the flow of weapons from
this straw purchasing ring into Mexico.
ATF leadership finally informed the Mexican office that the investigation would be shut
down as early as July 2010. Operation Fast and Furious, however, continued through the rest of
2010. It ended only after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010
with weapons linked to this investigation. Only then did the ATF officials in Mexico discover the
true nature of Operation Fast and Furious. Unfortunately, Mexico and the United States will
have to live with the consequences of this program for years to come.
II. Findings- In the fall of 2009, ATF officials in Mexico began noticing a spike in guns recovered at
Mexican crime scenes. Many of those guns traced directly to an ongoing investigation
out of ATF’s Phoenix Field Division. - As Operation Fast and Furious progressed, there were numerous recoveries of large
weapons caches in Mexico. These heavy-duty weapons included AK-47s, AR-15s, and
even Barrett .50 caliber rifles – the preferred weapons of drug cartels. - At a March 5, 2010 briefing, ATF intelligence analysts told ATF and DOJ leadership that
the number of firearms bought by known straw purchasers had exceeded the 1,000 mark.
The briefing also made clear these weapons were ending up in Mexico. - ATF and DOJ leadership kept their own personnel in Mexico and Mexican government
officials totally in the dark about all aspects of Fast and Furious. Meanwhile, ATF
officials in Mexico grew increasingly worried about the number of weapons recovered in
Mexico that traced back to an ongoing investigation out of ATF’s Phoenix Field
Division. - ATF officials in Mexico raised their concerns about the number of weapons recovered up
the chain of command to ATF leadership in Washington, D.C. Instead of acting
decisively to end Fast and Furious, the senior leadership at both ATF and DOJ praised the
investigation and the positive results it had produced. Frustrations reached a boiling
point, leading former ATF Attaché Darren Gil to engage in screaming matches with his
supervisor, International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor, about the need to shut down the
Phoenix-based investigation. - Despite assurances that the program would be shut down as early as March 2010, it took
the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent in December 2010 to actually bring the
program to a close. - ATF officials in Mexico finally realized the truth: ATF allowed guns to walk. By
withholding this critical information from its own personnel in Mexico, ATF jeopardized
relations between the U.S. and Mexico. - The high-risk tactics of cessation of surveillance, gunwalking, and non-interdiction of
weapons that ATF used in Operation Fast and Furious went against the core of ATF’s
mission, as well as the training and field experience of its agents. These flaws inherent in
Operation Fast and Furious made its tragic consequences inevitable.