The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
created a secret operation called “Fast and Furious” as means
to catch those involved in
gun-trafficking across the U.S. borders. The program was created to expose how the gun
trafficking rings were getting their goods across the border, and also
lead the investigators to the people responsible for the acts. Fast and
Furious began in 2006 by ATF in Arizona as a means of tracking the purchasing
of firearms, and yet in the midst of the operation over 2,000 weapons
were unable to be located, with no evidence that they had been sold either.
Two of those weapons that could be traced were discovered when Brian Terry,
a border patrol agent, was killed in 2010.
Today a report was released that linked 14 officials to happenings that
led to the failures of the operation which ended in 2011. The report addresses
this issue claims that these individuals will hopefully receive disciplinary
action, though it is not planned that they will be prosecuted as criminals.
Attorney General Eric Holder apparently had no knowledge about this operation
until 2011 due to more border patrol agents being killed. Investigators
are coming to the conclusion that the failure of this operation was caused
by many things, but a lack of communication was evident, and when communication
is lacking details are missed and operations malfunction.
The United States take weapons crimes very seriously, whether it is something
as large scaled as a government scandal, or it is a smaller, it will be
taken as a serious act by the court. In the event that any individual
is accused of being involved in a weapons crime or involved in trafficking
weapons across the border, it is imperative they have a strong defense
attorney on their side. At
Knowles Law Firm, we offer a strong defense that is needed in cases like this. We have
been serving the Arizona community for years and are ready to represent
those who need defense. Call us today for more information!