FLASHBACK:
July 20, 2007
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0720/p01s05-usfp.html/%28page%29/2
According to an internal ATF report summarizing just 10 investigations in the Phoenix office since 2006, the gunrunning probes yielded almost 1,000 firearms probably “bound for Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern California.”
In one of those cases, ATF officials documented an unlicensed merchant who spent at least 100 days selling firearms at gun shows over the course of a year, violating a law that permits such individuals to divest themselves of their gun collections only once in their lifetimes. Agents reported seizing 129 firearms from this dealer, but “due to the fact that most of the firearms sold by the defendant were obtained from secondary sources and then resold, little documentation exists that would link [guns used in crimes] to the defendant,” the report said.
Another ongoing case involves a straw-purchase scheme among a foursome suspected of trafficking 130 firearms to Mexico, southern California, and Arizona. The document states: “To date, 21 [of those 130] firearms have been recovered in crimes, including 16 of them in Mexico. A firearm recovered in Mexico was used in the shooting of a Mexican police officer.”
“Our priority is curbing gunrunning in the Southwest,” says Newell, who currently manages 24 ATF agents working cases here in Phoenix.
ping to #7