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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    ATF's mysterious grenade smuggler case: new photos, documents turned over to Congress

    April 25, 2012 1:23 PM

    ATF's mysterious grenade smuggler case: new photos, documents turned over to Congress

    By Sharyl Attkisson


    New evidence photos recently turned over to Congress show a stash of grenade parts, fuse assemblies and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

    Evidence photos just turned over to Congress under subpoena show a frightening stash of grenade parts, fuse assemblies and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. It was all hidden in a spare tire of an SUV crossing from the US to Mexico in 2010. The accused smuggler, an alleged drug cartel arms dealer named Jean Baptise Kingery, was questioned by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) but released.

    Documents handed over to Congress by the Justice Department shed new light on missteps in the grenades case, and how ATF tracked the suspect for years.

    ATF started watching Kingery in "2004 related to AK47 purchases," according to an internal email, "it is believed that he is trafficking them to Mexico." A full five years later in late 2009, ATF also learned Kingery was dealing in grenades: he'd ordered 120 grenade bodies on the Internet.

    Grenades are weapons of choice for Mexico's killer drug cartels. An attack on a casino in Mexico last year killed 53 people.

    Documents show ATF secretly intercepted the grenade bodies Kingery had ordered, marked them, and delivered them to him on Jan. 26, 2010. Their plan was to follow Kingery to his weapons factory in Mexico, with help from Mexican authorities Immigration and Customs (ICE).

    ATF realized they might lose track of Kingery and the grenade parts in Mexico. But their emails show little attention to those who could be killed. Instead, officials expressed concerned with tying the grenades to Kingery after they reached Mexico. "Even in a post blast, as long as the safety lever is recovered we will be able to identify these tagged grenades," says one email.

    An official now investigating ATF and the Justice Department for their actions in the Kingery case tells CBS News: "All the usual safeguards of law enforcement were thrown out. They were more worried about making a big case than they were about the public safety."

    The plan to allow Kingery to traffic grenade parts into a foreign country and track him to his factory drew strong internal objections.

    "That's not possible," wrote a lead ATF official in Mexico. "We are forbidden from doing that type of activity. If ICE is telling you they can do that, they are full of [expletive]..."

    ATF officials in Mexico worried that once Kingery and the grenades crossed the border, they would disappear. And that's exactly what happened. Though ATF agents say they'd given all the specifics to Mexican military and police, the Mexicans failed to stop Kingery once he crossed into Mexico.

    Four months later, Kingery surfaced again in the U.S. This time, the Border Patrol caught him trying to smuggle the new stash of grenade hulls shown in the photos. ATF questioned him but, once again, he was let go. Nobody has stepped forward to explain why Kingery was released after this incident. He allegedly continued to supply the Mexican drug cartels for another year and a half.


    Evidence photos turned over to Congress

    Kingery might still be on the street if Mexican authorities hadn't arrested him last August after raiding his stash house and factory. Police say they found enough parts to build 1,000 grenades. They also say Kingery confessed to teaching cartels how to make grenades, as well as helping them convert semi-automatic weapons to fully-automatic.

    The Justice Department Inspector General is investigating the Kingery case along with ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in a failed attempt to take down a major cartel.

    There are some similarities between the Kingery grenade case and Fast and Furious. The chief suspect in Fast and Furious, Manuel Celis-Acosta was stopped by law enforcement three times but released -- while allegedly trafficking firearms for cartels. It wasn't until weapons linked to him turned up at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry that ATF finally charged Acosta.

    The Kingery case and Fast and Furious were both supervised out of ATF's Phoenix office by Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell. It was Newell who wrote an email and delivered the bad news about Kingery to Washington DC headquarters: Mexican officials "lost Kingery" even though "they had plenty of notice and descriptive info."

    The Justice Department and ATF had no immediate comment.

    ATF's mysterious grenade smuggler case: new photos, documents turned over to Congress - CBS News Investigates - CBS News
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  2. #2
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    uh oh.

    W
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  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    April 26, 2012
    Daily Caller

    Obama admin. let grenades walk in Fast and Furious, documents show

    Read more: Operation Fast and Furious | Grenades Walk | The Daily CallerIn a shocking development in the Operation Fast and Furious investigation, documents show Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents allowed grenade parts to walk in addition to guns.

    The emails also show Obama administration officials acknowledging that they may lose track of grenades but would still be able to accomplish their original objective even if the grenades explode.

    According to an internal email that was provided to Congress by the Department of Justice and first reported by CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson, ATF began watching accused smuggler Jean Baptiste Kingery’s AK-47 purchases in 2004. In the 2009 internal ATF email, Obama administration officials admitted they believed Kingery was “trafficking them into Mexico.”

    The 2009 email shows the ATF officials had then become aware of Kingery’s alleged grenade trafficking.

    The administration officials then put together a plan: They secretly intercepted Kingery’s grenade parts after he ordered them online, marked them with special paint and gave them back to him. Then, they allowed him to take those grenade parts into Mexico. ATF was going to try to find his weapons factory there — even though the U.S. government and its federal law enforcement agencies have no jurisdiction in Mexico — with the apparent goal of building a bigger case against Kingery.

    ATF agents had planned to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials — who, unlike ATF agents who ultimately report to Attorney General Eric Holder, report up the chain to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.


    (RELATED: Full coverage of Operation Fast and Furious)

    The emails show ATF agents were aware they might lose track of Kingery while they allowed him to transport the grenade parts into Mexico. The emails also show ATF agents knew that the grenades could end up exploding and killing innocent people if they proceeded with the plan. That didn’t stop the Obama administration’s ATF from allowing the grenades to walk.


    Read more: Operation Fast and Furious | Grenades Walk | The Daily Caller
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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  6. #6
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    See Trey Gowdy, SC 4, on Greta Van Susteren, FOX News. Paraphrased toward the end, he says that the DOJ appropriation is coming up in 2 weeks and there will be multiple amendments to "gut" their budget and they could wind up selling paperclips to the metal recyclers for money. Trey Gowdy is feisty.

    'Grenade-gate' rocks Justice Department? | Video | Fox News
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    Senior Member artclam's Avatar
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    Is it illegal to export grenade bodies? These are available for legitimate sale as novelty items within the US.

  8. #8
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by artclam View Post
    Is it illegal to export grenade bodies? These are available for legitimate sale as novelty items within the US.
    I'd GOOGLE "Is it legal to export grenade bodies" but I don't want the A.T.F./F.B.I knocking on my door.
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Investigator: Feds watched but couldn't stop American trafficking grenade parts to Mexico

    By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Reporter
    updated 12:46 PM EDT, Thu October 30, 2014


    Jean Baptiste Kingery

    STORY HIGHLIGHTS

    • Prosecutors allowed grenade parts to flow across the border with Mexico, according to a new IG report
    • Mexican and U.S. authorities planned a sting, but lost track of the suspect who sold the grenade parts
    • Grenade hulls were used in violent attacks by Mexican cartels, but are available in the U.S. in military supply stores



    Washington (CNN) -- An American trafficked thousands of grenade components to Mexico, many of which turned up in hands of drug cartel who used them in violent attacks, and federal agents were prevented from stopping it, in part because federal prosecutors wouldn't bring charges.

    Those are the finding of a new Justice Department inspector general report to be released Thursday. It harshly criticizes prosecutors in the Phoenix U.S. attorney's office and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.


    CNN reviewed a copy of the report before it was released.

    The report cites some of the same officials who were part of the botched Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed suspected arms traffickers to buy thousands of firearms, many of which ended up used in cartel violence.

    Jean Baptiste Kingery
    , an American from Arizona, was the suspect in the grenades case. He was arrested in 2011, in Mexico and has been charged with violating that nation's organized-crime laws.


    Related: ATF probes ties between grenade in Mexico and American


    Authorities then found his alleged grenade factory where they discovered parts that could have been used to manufacture about a 1,000 grenades.


    But that arrest only came months after ATF agents tried several times to arrest him, only to have prosecutors refuse to bring charges, according to the IG report and documents reviewed by CNN but not included in the report. Prosecutors argued that possessing hundreds of grenade hulls, commonly sold in U.S. military surplus stores as novelties, weren't necessarily a crime.


    Unlike, Fast and Furious, agents in the Kingery case worked with Mexican law enforcement to try to conduct a sting operation to stop Kingery. But Mexican officers missed him and he managed to get across the border with his cargo of grenade hulls.


    The Justice Department said in a statement: "In the six years since this operation was begun, we have taken aggressive action to ensure these errors are not repeated. The department does not condone the conduct that occurred during this investigation, and those individuals identified by the report as responsible for the operation have either been reassigned or left the department."


    Related: Mexico drug war fast facts

    Related: Mexico captures cartel leader

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/politi...port-grenades/

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