Thread: Court Documents: Fast and Furious Guns Flowed Back into Texas and New Mexico

Court Documents: Fast and Furious Guns Flowed Back into Texas and New Mexico

Tim Brown 3 Hours Ago
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Remember the mountain of lies we have heard from the Obama administration, specifically Attorney General Eric Holder, regarding Operation Fast and Furious? The claim was that they were just doing as the Bush administration in Operation Wide Receiver. In both accounts, I personally don't agree with the method, but at least to the Bush administration's credit they did actually attempt to track the weapons. The Obama administration made no such effort. In fact, it has been claimed by a high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative that the Obama administration was knowingly arming the Sinaloa Cartel against rival cartels with these weapons. As a result, the weapons have only been able to be recovered at murder scenes for the most part. This week, however, court documents have provided a little more detail on the conspiracy between the cartels and the Columbus, New Mexico conspirators in Operation Fast and Furious.

According to the El Paso Times:

Smugglers from Arizona being monitored through the U.S. government's Operation Fast and Furious helped supply firearms to a gun-trafficking ring led by officials in Columbus, N.M., according to court documents.

Court documents also provide additional details on the extent of the Columbus conspirators' involvement with Mexican drug traffickers and La Linea enforcers of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel.

According to one of the court documents, Border Patrol agents looking for a stolen vehicle stopped Blas Gutierrez, a former Columbus Village trustee, and Miguel Carrillo, a gun straw purchaser, in Columbus on Jan. 14, 2010. The two men, who were later convicted in the federal case against 11 Columbus conspirators, were not arrested that day.

The Border Patrol agents who stopped Gutierrez and Carrillo reported that they had found eight firearms inside the 2004 Nissan, including three Romarm Cugir pistols, two Ruger P345 pistols and three Fabrique National de Herstal pistols.

An investigation later determined that the three Fabrique Nationale de Herstal pistols had been purchased Jan. 9, 2010 in Arizona by Jaime Avila, one of the arms-trafficking conspiracy ringleaders who was being monitored by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as part of Operation Fast and Furious. Avila was one of the main suspects in the ATF's centerpiece case for Fast and Furious.

The court document stated that the three Romarm Cugir pistols found on Gutierrez and Carrillo that day "were bought (on) an unlisted date by another straw purchaser identified as Uriel Patino, also of Phoenix." Patino was another ATF target in Operation Fast and Furious. Patino was a co-defendant with Jaime Avila.

The report went on to elaborate about document concerning Ian Garland, owner of the former Chaparral Guns in Chaparral, NM, who
sold weapons to the Columbus conspirators. Garland was recently released from prison after serving a sentence in his role in the conspiracy. Though he claims that he was pressured to accept a plea agreement in in 2011, he is now setting out to clear his name and has devoted a website to that endeavor, www.fastandfuriousejusticenow.org.
"I was singled out for punishment even though all my sales to these people were reported as required by law, and the buyers were legally able to buy the firearms," Garland said. "The ex-police chief, Angelo Vega, the ex-mayor, Eddie Espinoza, and Blas Gutierrez, the village trustee, and everyone else who bought from me, need to be interviewed. They all asked, on the record, 'Why is Ian here, he had no conspiracy with us? We only used his store, as well as others, to buy from.' The connection between Arizona's Fast and Furious is clear, crystal clear, and this is in my pre-sentencing report."
"I am Australian born, a U.S. citizen, and damn proud of it," Garland said. "I am fighting because the government's lawyers held back information that could have exonerated me. Plus, I got sentenced under the wrong guidelines, which gave me a harsher penalty than even the charges warranted."
According to the El Paso Times, Garland is planning on sharing the information he has regarding the ties of Fast and Furious to El Paso and Nuarez with Mexican authorities.
I would highly recommend reading Diana Washington Valdez's excellent, full report here.
The Obama administration has a lot of blood on its hands and Congress just does not seem willing to hold anyone in the administration accountable. Hundreds of Mexicans are dead, including a Mexican beauty queen and a Mexican police chief. At least two federal agents are dead. All of these people have died from gunshot wounds from weapons obtained via Operation Fast and Furious.
While much of the news of late on Freedom Outpost has centered on the Bundy Ranch Siege, numerous references have been made to the similarities of Ruby Ridge and Waco. Yet, the biggest missing agency in the Bundy saga is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). They are, however, at the center of the Fast and Furious scandal. This illegal federal agency also has blood on its hands. It proceeded as if everything was OK, watched the guns walk across the border, and when the whistle was blown on the operation, sought to discredit the whistleblowers, even threatening them.
Eric Holder has been continuing in his capacity as Attorney General for nearly two years since being held in contempt of Congress. Obama continues to hold executive privilege over releasing documents subpoenaed by Congress regarding Fast and Furious. Now, these same guns are coming back across our borders.
I'm fully 100% pro-gun. I don't think the federal government has any authority when it comes to restricting arms of any type from its people. However, we know what this administration's goal is. Holder has told us it is to brainwash us against guns. Obama has told us he supports the Second Amendment with his lips, but his pen, policies and actions have demonstrated he is a domestic enemy of the Constitution. The only ones Obama supports having guns are America's enemies, and he has happily provided them with arms (along with the approval of Congress), that will eventually be used against Americans.

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http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/04/co...as-new-mexico/

Holder Begs Court To Prevent Public From Seeing Obama’s “Executive Privilege” Records Relating to “Fast And Furious”...

January 18, 2013

Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law.
Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”
The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that Holder’s and Obama’s desire to continually hide these Fast and Furious documents is “ironic” now that they’re so gung-ho on gun control. “It is beyond ironic that the Obama administration has initiated an anti-gun violence push as it seeking to keep secret key documents about its very own Fast and Furious gun walking scandal,” Fitton said in a statement. “Getting beyond the Obama administration’s smokescreen, this lawsuit is about a very simple principle: the public’s right to know the full truth about an egregious political scandal that led to the death of at least one American and countless others in Mexico. The American people are sick and tired of the Obama administration trying to rewrite FOIA law to protect this president and his appointees. Americans want answers about Fast and Furious killings and lies.”

Read more via Breitbart...

http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines...unning-scandal

Darrell Issa: Reprimand of 'Fast and Furious' official justifies Eric Holder contempt lawsuit

BY SUSAN FERRECHIO | MARCH 31, 2014 AT 6:22 PM

TOPICS: CONGRESS ATF ARIZONA FAST AND FURIOUS ERIC HOLDER DARRELL ISSA PENNAVE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HOUSE OVERSIGHT

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., speaks during a hearing on...House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ChairmanDarrell Issa believes new disciplinary action against a government operative in the “Fast and Furious” gun running scandal reinforces a Congressional contempt charge against Attorney General Eric Holder.
Issa, R-Calif., said former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke “undoubtedly deserved” the reprimand he received from the Arizona State Bar for leaking information to the press about the gun-running operation. Issa said it also justifies the GOP-led lawsuit against Holder for information relating to the matter.
“Dennis Burke's disciplinary agreement with the Arizona State Bar makes clear his belief that Eric Holder's Justice Department was more interested in politically protecting itself than giving Congress full information about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious,” Issa said on Monday.
Burke was reprimanded last week by the Arizona Bar for leaking classified Fast and Furious documents to two media outlets.
Republican lawmakers are entangled with Holder in a court case stemming from a June 2012 House vote to hold him in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents and emails related to the gun-trafficking case.
Both sides are preparing to present arguments before a federal judge, who will then issue a judgement in the case. So far, the judge has rejected efforts by the Justice Department to dismiss the House lawsuit.
“These documents will shed light on the nature of the Department’s false denials of improper conduct and its response to Congress, including misconduct of which Dennis Burke was aware, that Attorney General Holder refused to discuss with Congress,” Issa said.
The Fast and Furious operation was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to try to trace gun sales to Mexican drug cartels. The program, which was based out ofPhoenix between 2009 and 2011, when Burke headed the Attorney General's office there, ended up allowing more than 1,400 guns to be smuggled over the Mexican border and one of them was used to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Burke told the Arizona Bar and congressional investigators in an earlier interview that he leaked the Justice Department information to the media to provide more transparency about the matter.
But Issa said Monday he believes Burke gave out the information to reveal who inside the government had originally blown the whistle on the deeply flawed operation.
“His actions to selectively leak a single document supporting a misleading narrative, though a common tactic in the Obama administration, was a cowardly and self-serving action intended to smear a whistleblower,” Issa said.

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http://washingtonexaminer.com/darrel...rticle/2546584

Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder Pushes to Track American Gun Owners

Michael Schaus | Apr 08, 2014



Eric Holder (ya know: the guy that helped run “Operation Fast and Furious” which ran guns from the US to Mexican drug cartels) spoke before Congress on Friday about the importance of beefing up gun control. His big idea, apparently, was a high-tech gun tracking bracelet. Whichalmost seems like a good idea… Especially for the hundreds of weapons that the DOJ helped smuggle to the aforementioned drug cartels. I bet an extra step or two to keep our eye on those guns that “walked” across the border (with DOJ authorization) would have been a good idea.
Of course, Holder isn’t proposing such an idea for his gun running ambitions… He’s suggesting it for you and me. He’s suggesting that the government ramp-up their tracking of legal firearms – via Google-style technology – because America’s 100+ million lawful gun owners are obviously the problem here. (My kingdom for a sarcasm font.)
The entirety of Holder’s comments were a rambling illustration of his disdain for Second Amendment rights. Before engaging the congressman in a discussion about Silicon-Valley-sponsored infringements on the Second Amendment, the top Law Enforcement Official of the US made reference to last year’s failed “common sense” gun control proposals… Of course, “common sense” would usually indicate that there was a widespread sense (“common”, if you will) that such reforms were both necessary and effective.
I mean, heck, Ciudad Juárez in Mexico has stricter gun laws than Chicago… And yet, it is home to some of the most atrocious gang violence in our hemisphere. Oh, and Chicago? Well, since adopting a semblance of concealed carry, their murder rate has plummeted. (But I’m sure that’s coincidence.)
But, getting back to the issue of microchip-powered gun control: What do you think fingerprint technology, or “smart bracelet” requirements, will do to firearm prices? I understand that Holder is from the government, and therefore woefully ignorant of market forces… But higher prices will yield a de facto prohibition on firearms for the lower and middle classes. (Talk about a war on the poor.) It’s probably not too over the top to remind everyone at this point that the earliest form of institutionalized gun control in America was legislation aimed at pricing firearms out of the reach of newly-freed slaves.
Which, brings up a peripheral thought: Holder thinks that restrictions, expanded background and mental health checks, electronic bracelets, and technological conditions will help “preserve” the Second Amendment… But requiring people to show a photo ID to cast a vote is too much of a burden on blacks, Hispanics, and America’s impoverished. It appears the DOJ doesn’t want poor people, minorities, or “underprivileged” individuals to poses the right to protect themselves. (Racists!)
Evidently, the Second Amendment is reserved only for the wealthy and connected... Oh, and Mexican drug cartels. (Do you suppose they will be forced to abide by the “smart gun” plan Holder is proposing?)
Holder’s comments are insulting and repulsive to both the spirit, and letter, of the Second Amendment. But, it’s the irony that really underscores the audacious nature of his gun-control fascination. The chutzpa required for the DOJ to demand tougher gun tracking protocols, after he helped smuggle hundreds of weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, is pretty impressive.
Maybe the Justice Department should focus on all those illegal guns they helped hand over to organized crime… And leave America’s law abiding citizens alone. (Besides… If you need tracking information, you already have the NSA on the case.)

http://finance.townhall.com/columnis...0036/page/full