Mexican Police Chief killed with Fast and Furious Weapon

Townhall.com ^ | July 9, 2013 | Bob Beauprez

[Kaslin]

Barack Obama and Eric Holder are doubtlessly grateful that virtually everyone, including the mainstream media, has turned the Fast and Furious page and moved on to more recent White House Administration scandals.  But, the human carnage continues to mount.

A Los Angeles Times investigation uncovered Justice Department documentation of the assassination Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the Police Chief of Hostotipaquillo in the west-central Mexican state of Jalisco, who "was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire."  Also killed was one of Astorga's bodyguards.  The Chief's wife and another bodyguard were also wounded.  

Eight suspects were apprehended shortly after the shootout along with "rifles, grenades, handguns, helmets, bulletproof vests, uniforms and special communications equipment.  The area is a hot zone for rival drug gangs, with members of three cartels fighting over turf in the region," according to theLA Times.  The rifle used to kill Chief Astorga was traced back to the ATF Fast and Furious "gunwalking" scandal.  According to the published report:

A semi-automatic WASR rifle, the firearm that killed the chief, was traced back to the Lone Wolf Trading Company, a gun store in Glendale, Ariz. The notation on the Department of Justice trace records said the WASR was used in a “HOMICIDE – WILLFUL– KILL –PUB OFF –GUN” –ATF code for “Homicide, Willful Killing of a Public Official, Gun.”

The Mexican government says 211 people have been killed or wounded by weapons traced to the 2009-2010 Fast and Furious operation.  Specific to the weapon used in the murder of Chief Astorga, theLA Timesreports:

The WASR used in Jalisco was purchased on Feb. 22, 2010, about three months into the Fast and Furious operation, by 26-year-old Jacob A. Montelongo of Phoenix. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy, making false statements and smuggling goods from the United States and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Court records show Montelongo personally obtained at least 109 firearms during Fast and Furious. How the WASR ended up in the state of Jalisco, which is deep in central Mexico and includes the country’s second-largest metropolis, Guadalajara, remained unclear.

After the shooting in Jalisco, local officials said some of the suspects confessed to two other shootouts in the area, including one that left seven people dead, all part of the continuing feud by rival cartel members.

The ATF declined to discuss the matter; officials said they are still compiling an inventory of all the lost firearms for a complete account of the Fast and Furious operation.

On December 14, 2010 U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed during an operation to track down illegal Mexican bandits in Arizona's Peck Canyon.  Guns left at the murder scene were also traced to Fast and Furious.  

Fast and Furious was an ill-conceived ATF operation that intentionally put guns into the possession of the Mexican drug cartels – among the most violent criminals on the planet – supposedly to make it possible to track and apprehend the bad guys. It didn't work.

ATF allowed "more than 2000 weapons, including giant .50 caliber guns, to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels and other criminals.  Other so-called "gunwalking" operations by ATF let hundreds more guns hit the street," according to a CBS News report.  Unfortunately, "most of them have never been recovered."

ATF (The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) is a division the Department of Justice.  Attorney General Eric Holder testified on May 3, 2011 to Congress that, "I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

However, Holder's claim of innocence – or ignorance – melted away with the discovery of numerous high level DOJ memos from 2010 including one in July from the Director of the National Drug Intelligence Center informing Holder that Fast and Furious straw gun buyers, like Montelongo mentioned above, "are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels."

The document trail left Holder with two options: either the Attorney General who even critics acknowledge is a highly intelligent man somehow completely forgot all of the numerous briefings and communications regarding Fast and Furious until just prior to the May, 2011 Congressional hearing, or the Attorney General committed perjury by lying under oath.

We still don't have the answer to that question.  Nor do we know who is ultimately responsible for the death of Agent Terry and hundreds of Mexicans.  What we do know is that Eric Holder is still the Attorney General, the Mexican drug cartels are still heavily armed in part courtesy of the U.S. government, the death toll continues to grow, and too few people seem to care. 

[rktman]

King hussein found out on the evening news just like the rest of us common folks. What? It wasn’t on the evening news? Surprise, surprise, surprise.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Click The Pic

[Hotlanta Mike]

If the government of Mexico had any balls it file a warrant for Eric Holder’s arrest...but instead it wants to play footsies with Obama for food stamps and amnesty for it’s citizens illegally invading it’s sovereign neighbor to el norte.

[bkopto]

What difference does it make?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Sick of Obama yet?

[Max in Utah]

B F L

[M Kehoe]

0bama and Holder's Fast & Furious is a gift that keeps on giving.

Why those two are not impeached is just mind boggling.

5.56mm

[Resolute Conservative]

It would interfere with tee times, fund raisers, fornicating interns, and cocktail parties. Congress doesn’t have time to be Congress.

[TexasCajun]

[yoe]

Under Obama, America has become so divisive our laws are not allowed to question the acts of elected men and women of color for fear of reprisal...I would like a few of them brought before a court of honest judges and ask them where their sympathies lie as to their country...all Americans should consider that question the next time they vote.

[Standing Wolf]

Congress doesn’t have time to be Congress.

Amen! After we restore our lost constitutional republic, I doubt we'll have much trouble passing a constitutional amendment limiting all federal office holders to a single term.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[Resolute Conservative]

And they should not be allowed to establish a private residence in DC. We should have an area like a condo complex or trailer park where it is like an Extended Stay America. It is good enough for our military to “dorm up” they can too. We can have a shuttle bus pick them up every day and take them back so they don’t need private drivers and limos.

It will aid us in monitoring their work product. They like watching us, so we should be able to watch them and ensure they are working and not using their position to lay ground work for becoming a lobbyist (which should be outlawed), having parties/junkets, or banging everything that walks. No matter how much money they have they should have to always report to and from DC for sessions by flying coach or regular train.

They should be forced to spend more days in their district/state a year than in DC.

[BerryDingle]

If the government of Mexico had any balls it file a warrant for Eric Holder’s arrest...but instead it wants to play footsies with Obama for food stamps and amnesty for it’s citizens illegally invading it’s sovereign neighbor to el norte.

The Mexican govt and Holder are on the same payroll where billions of $ come from----the Mexican drug cartel lawyers.

[TigersEye]

FBI Criminal Informant Complicit in Brian Terry’s Death (PJM Exclusive)

The rip crew was in Peck Canyon that evening with the intention of stealing money and drugs from a specific shipment of which they had prior knowledge.

(snip)

The rip crew knew to be in Peck Canyon that December evening because a CI working for the FBI found out about a smuggling run — from the FBI.

(snip)

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — through its own CIs and communications intercepts — was also aware of the planned assault.

Neither the DEA nor FBI warned Border Patrol about the expected criminal activity.

(snip)

The federal government will still not reveal if one of the two WASR-10 AK-pattern semi-automatic rifles located near the scene — provided to the Sinaloa cartel via Operation Fast and Furious — was the weapon that put a bullet through Brian Terry’s heart. The existence of a third recovered gun, an SKS carbine, has been disputed by the FBI despite the fact it had been talked about openly in the beginning of the investigation among federal agents.

Multiple sources tell PJM that this third weapon “disappeared” because it was the weapon carried by the FBI CI who ran the rip crew. When it was recovered near the scene of the murder and subsequently traced by the ATF, it traced back to the FBI CI via the gun shop in Texas where it was purchased.

Brian Terry’s murder was entirely preventable. The incompetence of the DEA and FBI let his Border Patrol unit walk into an ambush. After the ambush, it appears the FBI tampered with evidence to cover up that one of their informants was involved with the murder of a federal agent.

[yoe]

What we do know is that Eric Holder is still the Attorney General, the Mexican drug cartels are still heavily armed in part courtesy of the U.S. government, the death toll continues to grow..."

What we do know: (DAMNING: The Complete Benghazi Timeline Spreadsheet [Updated])........Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton to their shame, will never live this down. We can surmise that Valerie Jarrett and Axelrod with Obama's blessing, sent Susan Snow out to build on The Obama-Hilary Lie. We do know that the IRS on Obama's watch did and by Obama's example, did target conservative organizations for audit and harassment.
We do know that FBI director Muller lied to congress about his knowledge as to his FBI's probe of the IRS....

We do know that the Obamas have taken expensive trips over and above what is allowed them by congress...the Clinton's took money from the DOD for their travels, one can only assume that the expense of keeping the Obama's safe and in comfort, they are invading other accounts like the Clintons.

If everyone would call their elected and complain loudly about these "infractions", some might actually try to rein in the tyrant and the "too few people seem to care" aspect of the Crimes of Obama might take a turn towards making him pay. Certainly, Hilary ascent has been crippled.........for good.

[TigersEye]

Ice Agent Jaime Zapata Murdered While Investigating Fast and Furious Weapons

ICE Agent Jaime Zapata and his partner, Victor Avila, were ambushed at a fake roadblock in Mexico. Were they set up? If so by whom?

----------------------------------------------------------

While the weapons found at the Zapata murder scene were not from among the Fast and Furious guns, this revelation is profoundly significant, because it directly contradicts sworn testimony by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

“I have no information to that effect, no. I don’t know one way or the other,” she replied to a direct question on any Fast and Furious connection by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Word games. Here's the little trick Napolitano, Holder and ATF are playing. F&F was an ATF operation run out of the Tucson AZ office. But some guns were walked out of Texas gun shops which puts them in the jurisdiction of Texas ATF offices so those ops must have had other names. So far I have not seen any reporting on what those op names were.

Armored SUV could not protect U.S. agents in Mexico

U.S. investigators recovered one of the military-style semi-automatic weapons used in the attack that killed Zapata.

The gun came from Texas.

Ballistic testing of spent shell casings and the raising of an obliterated serial number revealed the weapon was a popular Romanian-made AK-47 knockoff purchased at J&J’s Pawn Shop in Beaumont, smuggled south to the Zetas by a methamphetamine trafficker named Manuel Gomez Barba, a U.S. citizen.

ICE agent's family files wrongful death claim against Justice Dept.

[TigersEye]

Fast and Furious. Let's call it what it is ... State-sponsored terrorism.

On this side of the border it's violations of the RICO Act. In Mexico and Honduras it's state-sponsored terrorism.

What else would you call heavily arming international criminal syndicates within a foreign country wherein that country is in a death struggle with those syndicates?

Especially when it goes beyond thousands of assault rifles to include grenades, RPGs, shoulder fired rockets, anti-aircraft guns, night vision equipment, body armor and special deals to bring their drugs onto our soil with legal impunity?

Not to mention that the rip crew that killed BP Agent Brian Terry was there with DEA and FBI assistance and approval to attack and kill a rival cartel's smuggling crew.

Let's not leave out the DEA laundering millions of dollars for the drug cartels by setting up bank accounts for them that they otherwise couldn't do.

It's organized, it is spread through every Federal LEA and it violates numerous domestic laws and numerous statutes and treaties that deal with foreign nations. Yet none of it has been officially sanctioned. It's the FedGov acting like mafiosa.

0bama, Holder and Hillary Clinton are all deeply involved in this and it is state-sponsored terrorism. These criminal thugs are dragging our country down to the level of Tehran and Pyongyang.

[Ken H]

FEMA trailers!