Rolling Stone: Arming the Cartels: The Inside Story of a Texas Gun-Smuggling Ring

[TomSea]

Take it or leave it, it's Rolling Stone, there is certainly a leftist gun-control bend to this story but at the same time, maybe it is a bit informative. It's probably as long as 3-5 typed pages.  People might find this interesting.  Disclaimer, seemingly one graphic picture at story. Also, story talks about "mini-guns".

Excerpt:

Arming the Cartels: The Inside Story of a Texas Gun-Smuggling Ring
By Seth Harp

...

THOUGH IT GETS far less attention than undocumented immigration or drug smuggling, running guns to Mexico is big business, a southbound black market worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the best estimates, gunrunners move 700 to 800 guns into Mexico every day — about a quarter-million guns every year.

“It’s a booming industry,” says Jack Riley, a retired DEA agent who tracked cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for 20 years. “To the cartels, smuggling guns and ammo across the border is just as important as cash coming back from the dope they sell. It’s something no one’s really talked about, and certainly the American people don’t know.”

The most striking thing about this black market is how few gunrunners are caught. Most of them are U.S. citizens, and in America there is no comprehensive federal law against firearms trafficking, making investigations difficult and the penalties relatively light, especially compared with smuggling drugs. ...

....


The Anzalduas port of entry in Mission, Texas. There’s no end to the ways gunrunners have of hiding their illicit merchandise, says an former HSI agent. “Trucks with an inside and an outer shell. An inner and an outer fender. A flatbed with a false bottom, holding 15 or 20 guns. They’ll hide them inside oil pans, inside manifolds, inside tankers, in the bilge — no one wants to look in there because it’s so fricking nasty.” Photo credit: John Moore/Getty Images

Read more at: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/arming-mexican-cartels-inside-story-of-a-texas-gun-smuggling-ring-866836/

[Smokin Joe]

Ya mean like Fast and Furious?

[TomSea]

A friend of mine just sent me an article, we all have heard of F & F, Fast & Furious but how about Operation Castaway...??

It caused damage too, like Fast & Furious, I'm trying to see when it was in effect:

Before Fast & Furious, Florida had Operation Castaway

By Miami Herald

Published Oct. 6, 2012

A sensational election-season report into the botched Operation Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation has cast new light on a simultaneous Florida firearms investigation linked to violence in Colombia, Honduras and Puerto Rico.

Called Operation Castaway, the Florida case has received far less attention than Fast and Furious. The latter became an embarrassing distraction for President Barack Obama’s administration when it was implicated in the death of a federal agent and Mexico massacres, according to federal documents and a new cross-border investigative report by the Spanish-language network Univision.

Two Justice Department officials resigned and a dozen more face possible disciplinary action after the September release of a scathing 512-page inspector general’s report that detailed the “seriously flawed” Fast and Furious case in which Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents allowed AK 47-style firearms and other weapons to cross the border into Mexico.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/before-fast-amp-furious-florida-had-operation-castaway/1255064/

When was this and who ran the show?? People died in it too.

The Blaze:

US July 11, 2011
Operation Castaway': Did ATF Sell Guns to Honduran Gangs Too?
"Either they were ignorant, or they were lying to us."

Sexton

The "Project Gunrunner" case is now pointing towards possible ATF sales of weapons bound for Honduras, including a reported 1,000 guns to members of the ruthless MS-13 gang. The program may be a spinoff or in some way related to "Operation Castaway," and in reports it sounds remarkably similar to "Operation Fast and Furious."

Last week, the Blaze reported on the controversy surrounding "Operation Fast and Furious," an offshoot of the Project Gunrunner program. The Attorney General is under scrutiny after allegations that the ATF knowingly allowed straw buyers in the US to purchase weapons bound for Mexican drug cartels and "let them walk," meaning they dropped surveillance on the buyers and lost track of the weapons.There are also accusations that as part of the Project Gunrunner program, ATF agents told gun store owners to sell to suspected criminals, against the owners' objections, and that there was a top down ATF policy that accepted the weapons would cross international boundaries.

Read more at: https://www.theblaze.com/news/2011/07/11/operation-castaway-did-atf-sell-guns-to-honduran-gangs-too

This has got to be during the Obama administration too.

All of these stories are from 2011:

ATF Florida Gun Probe Earns Congressional Scrutiny in Wake of 'Fast and Furious'
By Judson Berger, | Fox News

Several lawmakers are questioning the Obama administration about whether the controversial "Fast and Furious" gunrunning probe may have had a cousin in Florida that resulted in guns being trafficked to Central America.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., penned a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson inquiring about a program known as "Operation Castaway." Other top lawmakers are also starting to look into it, though ATF claims the program was above board and not similar to Operation Fast and Furious at all.

The Justice Department says Castaway was an anti-gun trafficking operation handled by an ATF division in Florida. It resulted last year in a slew of convictions for defendants the department claimed provided firearms linked to violent crimes around the world. But in light of questions surrounding the Fast and Furious probe out of ATF's Phoenix division, Bilirakis questioned whether Castaway bore the same suspicious hallmarks.

More: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/atf-florida-gun-probe-earns-congressional-scrutiny-in-wake-of-fast-and-furious

Okay, any stories after 2011? Anyway, yes, this makes it clear that it happened under the Obama administration.

   

[txradioguy]

The Obama administration is just the gift that keeps on giving.

[verga]

Unbelievable.

[Sanguine]

The Obama administration is just the gift that keeps on giving.

Sure is.

[Smokin Joe]

Y'all are just scratching the surface.

An Indiana ATF operation selling guns to gangs in illinois: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/09/codrea-exclusive-project-gangwalker.html

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged an Indiana dealer’s cooperation in conducting straw purchases at the direction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Exclusive documents obtained by Gun Rights Examiner show the dealer cooperated with ATF by selling guns to straw purchasers, and that bureau management later asserted these guns were being traced to crimes.

and...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-drug-cartel-shootout-with-mexico-police-linked-to-grenade-walking-scandal/

CBS News has learned of a shocking link between a deadly drug cartel shootout with Mexican police last week and a controversial case in the U.S. The link is one of the grenades used in the violent fight, which killed three policemen and four cartel members and was captured on video by residents in the area.

According to a Justice Department "Significant Incident Report" filed Tuesday and obtained by CBS News, evidence connects one of the grenades to Jean Baptiste Kingery, an alleged firearms trafficker U.S. officials allowed to operate for years without arresting despite significant evidence that he was moving massive amounts of grenade parts and ammunition to Mexico's ruthless drug cartels. >snip<

As CBS News previously reported, documents show ATF began watching Kingery in "2004 related to AK47 purchases" he was believed to be trafficking to Mexico.

In 2009, ATF also learned Kingery was dealing in grenades; weapons of choice for Mexico's killer cartels. Documents show they developed a secret plan to let him smuggle parts to Mexico in early 2010 and follow him to his factory. Some ATF agents vehemently objected, worried that Kingery would disappear once he crossed the border into Mexico. That's exactly what happened.

Kingery resurfaced several months later in 2010, trying to smuggle a stash of grenade bodies and ammunition into Mexico, but was again let go when prosecutors allegedly said they couldn't build a good case.

More at the link (Sharyl Attkisson)

see also: https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/10/18/grenades-atf-allowed-to-walk-into-mexico-used-against-police-n1727263 and https://patriotoutdoornews.com/11919/grenadewalker-inspector-general-reports-blasts-doj-another-fast-furious-scandal

[Smokin Joe]

The Obama administration is just the gift that keeps on giving.

It is a "legacy" written in the pain and blood of its victims. The 'dream' from his Father was getting back at the white colonialists in Kenya, only he identified Americans as them (even though we didn't have an African colony--Valerie Jarrett's "paybacks" were more than just a political thing).
Pure, unadulterated racism, and the sad part of his fable is that a lot of that pain is being felt by people of every race, especially Blacks. Nowhere else in the world will people of any skin color or heritage find a Government which would guarantee their liberty and Rights as well as this one could, if they would just use it as originally intended.