‘...the Obama administration allowed guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels in the hope the weapons would be recovered at crime scenes.’
Completely false. The primary objective of F&F was to create data as the basis for more anti-gun legislation (at all levels of govt but primarily federal). Anything else was secondary and a ‘fringe benefit’. Remember if you will that around the time F&F was in full swing the Barry administration had primed the press with stories of American guns causing harm S of the border. The narrative was American gun owners are bad and the 2ndA must be curtailed....all to save Mexicans.
Also should mention that the ATF (aka F Troop) had no controls on guns that went S of the border. So, when they left the country they disappeared from LE radar completely. Federal LE had NO idea who had them, where they were going or if they would turn up again. I strongly believe they never had a complete list of serial numbers either and the number of F&F guns is FAR larger than the govt will admit to.