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'Fast & Furious' rifle capable of taking down helicopter found in El Chapo cache
Fox News ^ | 01/20/2016 | By William La Jeunesse

Posted on 01/20/2016 7:02:16 AM PST by SeekAndFind

A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.

A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car or, as it was intended, take down a helicopter.

After the raid on Jan. 8 in the city of Los Mochis that killed five of his men and wounded one Mexican marine, officials found a number of weapons inside the house where Guzman was staying, including the rifle, officials said.

When agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives checked serial numbers of the eight weapons found in his possession, they found one of the two .50-caliber weapons traced back to the ATF program, sources said.

Federal officials told Fox News they are not sure how many of the weapons seized from Guzman's house actually originated in the U.S. and where they were purchased, but are investigating.

Out of the roughly 2,000 weapons sold through Fast and Furious, 34 were .50-caliber rifles that can take down a helicopter, according to officials.

Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that ‘El Chapo' would put his guardsmen on hilltops to be on guard for Mexican police helicopters that would fly through valleys conducting raids. The sole purpose of the guardsmen would be to shoot down those helicopters, sources said.

The Fast and Furious operation involved federal agents allowing criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking them.

Instead, agents from the ATF lost track of 1,400 of the 2,000 guns involved in the sting operation.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: Arizona
KEYWORDS: banglist; elchapo; elchapoguns; fastandfurious; fastfurious; rifle
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1 posted on 01/20/2016 7:02:16 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I hardly think John Moses Browning had helicopters in mind.


2 posted on 01/20/2016 7:04:41 AM PST by Dogbert41 (All the days of my life were written in your book before there was one of them!)
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To: SeekAndFind

The REAL reason the space shuttle program was shut down. The international space station is still at risk though from these unbelievably powerful weapons that NOBODY should have.


3 posted on 01/20/2016 7:05:24 AM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Any working rifle can take down a helicopter. VC brought down choppers with spears.

Helicopters are just looking for an excuse to crash, anyway. They're just Lawn Darts thrown around by the gods...

4 posted on 01/20/2016 7:07:29 AM PST by Feckless (The US Gubbmint / This Tagline CENSORED by FR \ IrOnic, ain't it?)
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To: SeekAndFind

[sigh]

A .22 rifle is capable of taking down a helicopter. You just have to shoot the pilot in the head.


5 posted on 01/20/2016 7:11:29 AM PST by taxcontrol ( The GOPe treats the conservative base like slaves by taking their votes and refuses to pay)
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To: SeekAndFind

What year did Obama first find out about Fast and Furious by watching the news? What I mean is when was it first reported?


6 posted on 01/20/2016 7:11:39 AM PST by demshateGod (Trump: We will have to leave borders behind and go for global unity)
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To: rktman
"The international space station is still at risk though from these unbelievably powerful weapons that NOBODY should have."

They don't have to hit it either. Those drunken hillbillies can use the proximity fuzed 5 kiloton round. If it explodes anywhere near the target the station will be destroyed. "Homer, did you see that thing burn out on reentry? Pass me the corn likker and the latest National Review!"

7 posted on 01/20/2016 7:16:10 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: SeekAndFind

Yet...no one goes to jail for gun running to drug dealers.


8 posted on 01/20/2016 7:16:35 AM PST by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: WKUHilltopper

RE: Yet...no one goes to jail for gun running to drug dealers.

The defense will argue that it was a good faith law enforcement effort to trace the guns to drug dealers in order to capture them.


9 posted on 01/20/2016 7:18:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Reminds me of a good Louis L’Amour novel (not a Western either) where this US fighter pilot (Native American) crashed in the Soviet Union on a “training” mission and after escaping his captors led them on a harrowing chase, where at one point he had fabricated a bow and arrow set and shot a helicopter pilot through an open hatch thus causing a crash.


10 posted on 01/20/2016 7:35:05 AM PST by Blue Collar Christian (Ready for Teddy, Cruz that is.)
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To: SeekAndFind

A lying defense will argue that this was just what Fast and Furious was designed to accomplish. By golly, we got El Chapo by “tracing” that big gun to his helicopter.


11 posted on 01/20/2016 7:39:31 AM PST by AZLiberty (A is no longer A, but a pull-down menu.)
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To: Feckless

They also made crossbows out of truck leaf springs, cable and used a tie rod as the bolt.......cut the end off to form a channel for the cable to fit in, and sharpened the other end..inventive little ba$tards


12 posted on 01/20/2016 7:56:06 AM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: rktman

...NOBODY should have.

I hope you forgot the sarcasm tag because the vertical flight of a .50 BMG round is about 36,000 ft.
Much lower than the space station’s orbit of 300 miles.


13 posted on 01/20/2016 8:00:25 AM PST by alpo (Resist we much)
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To: 17th Miss Regt
Blast from the past.


14 posted on 01/20/2016 8:03:25 AM PST by Rebelbase (A new batch of harpies has hatched in time for the 2016 election.)
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To: alpo

They raised the ISS? Nobody told me. LOL!

(Yes, I know. I worked on the STS for 36 years.)


15 posted on 01/20/2016 8:03:30 AM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Choppers are very fragile.
The headline is in typical leftist fashion, not a lie, but misleading to make it sound worse than it is.
Any rifle can take down a helicopter.

16 posted on 01/20/2016 8:10:51 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: BitWielder1

It can shoot through an elementary school


17 posted on 01/20/2016 8:15:24 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: Feckless

My Aviation friends call it the ‘magic bullet’!

The claim was that a lucky shot at the right spot, at the right time, from a bow and arrow, could bring one down.

That said, I’ve seen some that looked like crap and everyone walked out OK.


18 posted on 01/20/2016 8:15:59 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT (BINGO!)
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To: SeekAndFind

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3385952/posts


19 posted on 01/20/2016 8:25:21 AM PST by Daffynition (*Security, confiscate their coats. Get them out of here. It's 10 below zero out there ~DJT)
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To: Blue Collar Christian

Reminds me of a good Louis L’Amour novel (not a Western either) where this US fighter pilot (Native American) crashed in the Soviet Union on a “training” mission and after escaping his captors led them on a harrowing chase, where at one point he had fabricated a bow and arrow set and shot a helicopter pilot through an open hatch thus causing a crash.


Last of the Breed!


20 posted on 01/20/2016 8:38:45 AM PST by Idaho_Cowboy (Ride for the Brand. Joshua 24:15)
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