I thought during the testimony on of the ATF Agents said that they found guns with Zetas and were told not to arrest them because they were FBI informants?
F&F guns went to the Sinaloa cartel.
In the course of the investigation of F&F, it was discovered that the F&F BATFE agents were unaware of six FBI informants operating within the Zetas ... or something like that; it’s hard to discern the truth when something is so FUBAR.
The Zeta story back in July was as follows.
“The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.”
“Operation Fast and Furious was conceived to get some of the bigger fish down there,” said one official close to the congressional investigation, who asked not to be identified because the probe is ongoing. “Then it turned out that some of the ones they were zeroing in on actually most likely were paid informants.” (LA Times 7/17/11)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/17/nation/la-na-cartel-guns-20110717
These were the Zetas.
Since then, a large cache of F&F firearms was found a the home of a Sinaloa Cartel enforcer. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/09/guns-from-operation-fast-and-furious-found-in-home-suspected-mexican-drug/
“Forty high-powered assault weapons were found in the Ciudad Juarez home of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a “feared” leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel in that city, according to the Times. The Sinaloa cartel is considered the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world.
“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” one knowledgeable US government source told the Times.
There is considerable speculation about whether F&F was intentionally arming the Sinaloa Cartel to do battle with the Zetas. Remember that the Zeta leadership was trained by the USG at Fort Benning. Certainly some folks in the USG harbor resentment against the Zetas for the disloyalty of its leadership. That’s a fact, but the intentional motive of F&F is probably just a conspiracy theory. In any case, F&F is one really weird escapade of the USG.