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CBS News reveals a disturbing problem with Mexico, guns, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE).
'Project Gunrunner' deployed new teams of agents to the southwest border," reports CBS. "The idea: to stop the flow of weapons
from the US to Mexico's drug cartels. But in practice, sources tell CBS News, ATF's actions had the opposite result: they allegedly facilitated the
delivery of thousands of guns into criminal hands."
Established in 2007, "Project Gunrunner" was supposed to expand BATFE's ability to address weapons trafficking to Mexico.
Yet it seems that the agency was allowing numerous suspicious buyers to purchase hundreds of semi-automatic rifles
despite the concerns of the gun shop owners, and then permitting those rifles to "hit the streets" so intelligence could be gathered.
Several unnamed agents claimed that thousands of rifles, including some 50-caliber ones, made it to Mexico uninhibited.
Jaime Avila was one such buyer. He was put in the BATFE database in January 2010, and he purchased hundreds of rifles over the next year.
Hours after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010, Avila was arrested when two rifles he had purchased
under the nose of BATFE were found at the scene. Thirty-four other gunrunners in the same group have been indicted,
but the indictment makes no mention of Terry's murder. This gives us great pause considering thatBATFE has
requested expanded authority to track 8,500 firearm dealers in the Southwest.
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