Thread: Gun dealers warned investigators against selling guns to car

Gun dealers warned investigators against selling guns to cartels

Posted: Apr 15, 2011 6:58 PM PDT
Updated: Apr 15, 2011 6:58 PM PDT

Reporter: Craig Smith

WASHINGTON, DC (KGUN9-TV) - An Arizona gun dealer---urged by Federal investigators to sell guns to Mexican drug cartels---told agents he was worried the guns might be used against Border patrol agents.

He was right.

One of the guns turned up where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.

That's the scenario Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is spelling out based on e-mails which he says went between a gun dealer and a federal firearms investigator.

Senator Grassley says anonymous whistle blowers have been giving him the information the Justice Department didn't---including what he sees as proof Federal agents continued encouraging gun dealers to sell to drug cartels, even when the dealers feared they'd put American law enforcement in danger.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says two AK-47s seized when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed were in the hands of drug smugglers because ATF, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was encouraging dealers to sell to the gangs.

The idea was to trace the guns to cartel leaders and bring them down.

On the Senate floor Senator Grassley said: "The problem is this: They let so many little fish keep operating that between 13 and 17 hundred guns got away."

Senator Grassley says ATF and the Justice Department told him they never knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to the drug gangs.

Now he's released what he diplomatically describes as evidence to the contrary: leaked e-mails between a gun dealer and an ATF agent overseeing Arizona's part of Project Gunrunner---the program to sell guns to drug gangs and trace where they went.

Here's what the gun dealer wrote six months before Agent Terry died: "I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of agents safety because I have some very close friends that are US Border patrol agents in southern AZ as well as my concern for all the agents safety that protect our country."

Two months before that note, the agent tried to reassure a gun dealer saying, "...if it helps put you at ease we (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into detail."

When KGUN9 News tried to question ATF, that agency told us to call its parent agency: the Justice Department. They took a callback number and an e-mail address---usually a sign if they say anything, it'll be a canned statement.

KGUN9 reporter Craig Smith told the Justice Department Public Affairs Officer, "I must say, we much prefer a chance to actually ask questions rather than just get a flat press release."

As of early evening we were still waiting to hear from the Justice Department.

We'd like to talk with Senator Grassley too. His staff has been trying to help us connect, but he has a better excuse for not calling. He's in his home state of Iowa in an area hit by tornadoes.

By next Wednesday Senator Grassley wants the Justice Department to tell him in writing if it still stands by it's assertion ATF whistle blower allegations are false and that ATF did not knowingly allow sales of assault weapons to buyers who would channel them to the cartels.

www.kgun9.com

THIS IS TRULY BIZZARRO WORLD SHIT

THERE IS NOTHING; ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THEY CAN SAY TO JUSTIFY THIS BEHAVIOR

PEOPLE THAT ARE CORRUPT DO SHIT LIKE THIS

PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO VALUE FOR LIFE DOES SHIT LIKE THIS

PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO MORELS DOES SHIT LIKE THIS

PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO ETHICS DOES SHIT LIKE THIS

PEOPLE THAT WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS AND BLAME YOU FOR IT DOES SHIT JUST LIKE THIS

SOMEBODY; ACTUALLY A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE BETTER START WORRYING ABOUT PRISON LIFE AND BUY A WHOLE LOTTA STOCK IN K-Y JELLY OR CIGARETTES TO GET A PASS IN PRISON