Thread: BRIAN TERRY - Slain agent's family 'sickened' by info on Fast & Furious

Slain agent's family 'sickened' by info

Politico
By: Mackenzie Weinger
March 28, 2012 01:54 PM EDT

The family of the U.S. Border Patrol agent killed in connection with Operation Fast and Furious said it “is sickened” to learn that law enforcement agencies were not sharing information that could have possibly closed the investigation early and spared his death and other bloodshed.

“The Terry Family, like most of America, is sickened to read the latest revelations relating to ATF’s error-plagued and misguided Fast and Furious Investigation,” the family of slain agent Brian Terry wrote in a statement. “It is beyond our comprehension that U.S. federal law enforcement agencies were not talking with one another.”

The Los Angeles Times reported last week it had obtained documents showing that the law enforcement agencies were not coordinating their respective investigations. The ATF released the alleged gun trafficker Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta in May 2010 in the hopes he would bring them two drug lords, who were actually brothers and FBI informants, Eduardo and Jesus Miramontes-Varela. After Celis-Acosta was arrested in Feb. 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported the ATF learned that the brothers were secret FBI informants.

“One can only imagine that if the FBI, DEA and U.S. Attorney personnel had only shared their information with ATF agents that the Miramontes brothers were FBI informants, [then] the entire Fast and Furious debacle could have been avoided,” the family wrote.

“With this single piece of information, ATF could have chosen not to proceed with Operation Fast and Furious, which ultimately put almost 2,000 assault weapons into the hands of some of the most dangerous criminals in North America. Had this simple piece of information been shared among the different federal law enforcement agencies in Arizona, some 200 Mexican citizens would not have had to lose their lives in needless violence and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry would still be alive,” they said.

The operation attempted to investigate drug cartels and weapons traffickers but ended up supplying them with weapons. Investigators lost thousands of firearms, and many of these weapons crossed the border into Mexico. Terry was shot in December 2010 with guns linked to Operation Fast and Furious.

Slain agent's family 'sickened' by info - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com

Drug lords targeted by Fast and Furious were FBI informants

Federal agents released alleged gun trafficker Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta to help them find two Mexican drug lords. But the two were secret FBI informants, emails show.

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Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta (HANDOUT)

March 21, 2012|By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
Reporting from Washington — When the ATF made alleged gun trafficker Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta its primary target in the ill-fated Fast and Furious investigation, it hoped he would lead the agency to two associates who were Mexican drug cartel members. The ATF even questioned and released him knowing that he was wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

But those two drug lords were secretly serving as informants for the FBI along the Southwest border, newly obtained internal emails show. Had Celis-Acosta simply been held when he was arrested by theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in May 2010, the investigation that led to the loss of hundreds of illegal guns and may have contributed to the death of a Border Patrol agent could have been closed early.

Documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau show that as far back as December 2009 — five months before Celis-Acosta was detained and released at the border in a car carrying 74 live rounds of ammunition — ATF and DEA agents learned by chance that they were separately investigating the same man in the Arizona and Mexico border region.

ATF agents had placed a secret pole camera outside his Phoenix home to track his movements, and separately the DEA was operating a "wire room" to monitor live wiretap intercepts to follow him.

In May 2010, Celis-Acosta was briefly detained at the border in Lukeville, Ariz., and then released by Hope MacAllister, the chief ATF investigator on Fast and Furious, after he promised to cooperate with her.

The ATF had hoped he would lead them to two Mexican cartel members. But records show that after Celis-Acosta finally was arrested in February 2011, the ATF learned to its surprise that the two cartel members were secret FBI informants.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) are investigating Fast and Furious, which allowed illegal gun purchases in Arizona in hopes of tracking the weapons to Mexican drug cartel leaders. In a confidential memo to Republican committee members, Issa and Grassley said the ATF should have known the cartel members were informants and immediately shut down Fast and Furious.

"This means the entire goal of Fast and Furious — to target these two individuals and bring them to justice — was a failure," they wrote. The "lack of follow-through" by the various agencies, they said, typified "the serious management failures that occurred throughout all levels during Fast and Furious."

James Needles, a top ATF official in Arizona, told congressional investigators last year that it was very frustrating and a "major disappointment" to learn too late about the informants.

ATF officials declined to comment about the investigations because they are continuing.

But Adrian P. Fontes, a Phoenix attorney representing Celis-Acosta, who has pleaded not guilty, said he was concerned the federal agencies purposely did not share information.

"When one hand is not talking to the other, perhaps somebody is hiding something," he said. "Was this intentional?"

Emails and other records show that once the ATF and DEA realized they were both investigating Celis-Acosta, officials from both agencies met in December 2009 at the DEA field office in Phoenix.


It is unclear, however, whether MacAllister later told the DEA that she released Celis-Acosta in May 2010 and that he was headed into Mexico.
Her boss, David J. Voth, the ATF's group supervisor for Fast and Furious, told committee investigators that the ATF realized the Sinaloa cartel members were "national security assets," or FBI informants, only after Celis-Acosta was rearrested. He identified the informants as two brothers, and said, "We first learned when we went back and sorted out the facts."

Drug lords targeted by Fast and Furious were FBI informants - Los Angeles Times

Why would anyone want fools like this handling health care....

Family of slain Border Patrol agent ‘sickened’ feds didn’t share information
By Richard A. Serrano / Tribune Washington Bureau
Thursday, March 29, 2012 - Added 12 hours ago

Comments(3)

WASHINGTON - Family members of slain U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry said they were "sickened" by reports that federal law enforcement agencies on the Southwest border did not share information about their investigations, and believe Terry would be alive today had the ATF known that two top targets in its Fast and Furious gun-tracking case actually were FBI informants.

"It is beyond our comprehension that U.S. federal law enforcement agencies were not talking with one another," the family said in a statement released Wednesday by their Phoenix attorney, Lincoln Combs. "American citizens deserve better from their public servants."

Combs added that the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other federal agencies "should have been coordinating their investigative and prosecutorial efforts. This coordination should have started and continued with basic information sharing" to sort out leads gathered by the various agencies.

At the FBI, officials declined to comment, noting that they are continuing to investigate the Terry slaying. ATF officials also declined to comment, though spokesman Drew Wade has acknowledged that Fast and Furious "was a mistake."

Under the ATF’s failed Fast and Furious operation in Arizona, agents allowed illegal gun purchases in the hope of snaring Mexican drug cartel leaders. What they apparently did not know was that two of the cartel leaders they were pursuing were brothers working as FBI informants, and had been given immunity from prosecution.

Furthermore, the alleged top gun smuggler in Fast and Furious, identified as Manuel Celis-Acosta, was stopped three times but released by agents. Had he been arrested, Fast and Furious might have come to an early close, before Terry was killed in a December 2010 shootout at the border. Two weapons the government lost track of in Fast and Furious were discovered at the scene.

ATF records show that Celis-Acosta was stopped Dec. 9, 2009, in Phoenix, after he and an alleged conspirator were pulled over in a pickup with firearms they had purchased illegally. Agents assigned to the Fast and Furious operation had monitored the illegal purchases, trailed Celis-Acosta and then questioned him, finally letting him go.

The second stop was March 26, 2010, in Phoenix, when he was released after being stopped with a Colt .38-caliber pistol he’d also bought under surveillance. The third time was on May 29, 2010, when he was pulled over at Lukeville, Ariz., near the U.S-Mexico border with 74 rounds of live ammunition, and again set free.

Authorities have yet to explain publicly why Celis-Acosta was repeatedly released.

Family of slain Border Patrol agent ‘sickened’ feds didn’t share information - BostonHerald.com