“The story about the dealer (Lone Wolf IIRC) got out and nobody stomped on them about it.”
AFTER Terry was murdered and the cat was out of the bag. WIthout that one incident, there was going to be a showcase sweep of “strawmen” arrests in the US. And the store owner would have to decide, is he a “witness”, or is he going to line up AGAINST the ATF. In a non Terry death world, THAT would have been very dicey.
Soon after the strawman sweep, but not directly connected, would be several press releases of how many American guns were found at Cratel shootouts. There would be no way for a lowly store owner to tie those together.
Anyway, no other plan even makes remotely sense.
The owner of Lone Wolf said he was worried when he never heard about any stings happening. That lowly store owner would be going TILT in his conscience upon hearing about Cratel (cartel) shoot outs.