Of the articles that I've read on it that seems an apt description: "they actually ran the smuggling operation, or were complicit in it"
As sad as it, is it would probably be better to look at the international treaty violation with Mexico (regarding the guns entering their country) rather than the murder as far as going after the BATFE goes. The reason is that the BATFE can truthfully say "we never had any say in the murder of that BP agent, in fact if he didn't have the gun we were watching he would have had some other gun" whereas they cannot weasel out of the fact that they were directly involved in smuggling weapons into Mexico in violation of the treaty with them.
It’s amazing he is proposing ratifying a treaty his administration is violating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIFTA
“The Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms (CIFTA), originally the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Firearms Trafficking in the Americas, is an international firearms control treaty.”
“U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed that the U.S. ratify CIFTA.[2] Opponents are concerned that the measures contained within CIFTA could criminalize activities such as reloading ammunition if they are done without a license. Other provisions make unlicensed modification to any weapon a serious crime. Furthermore, there are provisions that expand infractions to larger groups of people effectively holding an organization responsible for the actions of a single member.”