Posted: 10/07/2013 01:00:20 PM MDT
By Diana Washington Valdez
lc-sunnews.com

Except for a lone fugitive, the U.S. government has wrapped up its case in Columbus, N.M., involving smuggling weapons across the border during Mexico's deadly drug cartel wars.

The case against the smuggling ring raised new issues stemming from a recent trial against a retired educator and left other questions lingering, including the extent of the connections between the Columbus defendants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Operation Fast and Furious.

Eddie Espinoza, the former Columbus mayor; Angelo Vega, the village's former police chief and Blas Gutierrez, a former Columbus village trustee, were among those who pleaded guilty in the 14-month, gun-smuggling scheme, according to court records.

The gun-smuggling ring used an apartment in El Paso to stash some of the weapons destined for Mexico and would transport some of the weapons to a bus station in Downtown El Paso, according to court records.

A suspect named Ignacio Villalobos, whom officials said may have fled to Mexico, remains a fugitive in the Columbus case.

The gun-smuggling scheme lasted from January 2010 to March 2011, according to the federal indictment against 11 defendants.

While the case against those involved in the Columbus ring was winding down, the recent trial of Danny Burnett turned up additional explosive allegations.

Burnett, a former school superintendent and friend of Vega,
was convicted Sept. 27 of leaking information about wiretaps placed on the Columbus, N.M., suspects while they were being investigated, and of lying to an official about it. The trial took place in Albuquerque.

During Burnett's trial, former Columbus village trustee Gutierrez testified that Vega, then the police chief, was receiving $2,000 a month to protect the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel.

Gutierrez also alleged in his testimony that the cartel would also pay Vega $1,500 for each time he used official vehicles, including Columbus police cars, for cartel matters, the Associated Press reported.

No one was available Friday at the U.S. Attorney's Office to say whether Gutierrez's allegations could lead to new charges.

Another issue that arose is the fact that Burnett is married to Paula Burnett, who was the criminal division chief for the New Mexico U.S. Attorney's Office.

Officials said Paula Burnett stepped down from the post, that she was assigned to a different section, and that she was cleared of any wrongdoing.

To avoid a conflict of interest, the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso prosecuted Danny Burnett.

The trial of Danny Burnett did not reveal how he obtained the leaked wiretap information, something that U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, asked about in a letter to federal officials.

In another letter, dated March 16, 2011, Grassley asked Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin about the connection between Fast and Furious and the Columbus drug-smuggling ring.

The letter referenced the indictment against the Columbus defendants that states that on Jan. 14, 2010, law enforcement officers stopped Gutierrez and Miguel Carrillo, another gun-smuggling defendant, while they were driving in Columbus and took note of the fact that they had several weapons in their vehicle, three of them AK-47 type pistols.

"However, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) allegedly let the individuals go, perhaps because it failed to determine that the weapons or individuals were connected to the ATF operation at the time of the vehicle stop," Grassley's letter said.

Later, officials said it was the Border Patrol that had stopped Gutierrez and Carrillo, and then let them go with the weapons intact because nothing suspicious turned up.

"The border patrol agents stopped Gutierrez and Carrillo because their vehicle matched the description of one reported stolen," according to a March 24, 2011 article published by the Center for Public Integrity, "Border agents unwittingly freed suspects near border with weapons from federal sting."

Grassley, who spearheaded a Congressional investigation into the ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, said he found that Jaime Avila Jr., one of the ATF's investigation targets in Arizona, had purchased six of the eight weapons identified in the 2010 Columbus vehicle stop.

The Albuquerque Journal also reported on this connection in an article Nov. 29, 2012 "Columbus, N.M. gun smuggling linked to Fast and Furious operation."

U.S. prosecutors in New Mexico did not reveal how the Columbus gun smugglers ended up with the weapons purchased by Avila, who allegedly was helping to supply weapons to the Sinaloa drug cartel across the border from Arizona.

Two weapons traced back to Avila's purchases were found near the body of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was shot to death by assailants in the Arizona desert. Terry's death in December 2010 prompted ATF officials to shut down Operation Fast and Furious.

At least one Fast and Furious-connected weapon was linked to the shooting attack in Mexico on Feb. 15, 2011 against Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents Victor Avila, of El Paso, and Jaime Zapata, of Brownsville. Zapata died in that attack.

Relatives of Terry, Zapata and Avila are suing the U.S. government alleging that U.S. gun walking operations were responsible for their deaths and injuries.

Under Fast and Furious, which the ATF launched in 2009, straw buyers were allowed to purchase weapons that the ATF planned to track and trace.

ATF officials said the operation was intended to dismantle major weapons traffickers. Nearly 2,000 weapons were obtained by straw buyers in this manner.

Grassley said the operation spun out of control, and dozens of guns and rifles were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, including in Juárez, Chihuahua City and Palomas, in Chihuahua. More than 1,400 Fast and Furious-connected weapons are unaccounted for.

Grassley complained that much of the controversial gun walking operation remains shrouded in mystery, and said it's because the U.S. Attorney General's Office continues to withhold documents related to the operation.

Among the documents being withheld are "April 2010 emails from the Group Supervisor to El Paso, Texas law enforcement regarding Fast and Furious connections to Texas," according to Grassley's list of documents that were not released by the U.S. Justice Department.

The Congressional battle over further disclosure about the gun walking operation continues.

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that a federal judge "suspended activity in a dispute over documents between the Justice Department and Congress because of the government shutdown."

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had sued Attorney General Eric Holder for the documents.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces...-gun-smuggling