On Nov. 29 MGRR reported on the sad case of Susana Flores, better known to Mexico as Miss Sinaloa. A few days earlier she was killed in a shootout with federal troops while in the company of heavily armed gunmen. One was her boyfriend.
Flores, whose age was given as 20 or 22 by press sources, was known to family and friends as Susy. The men she was with the day she died were presumed operatives of the Sinaloa Cartel. Military officials said that at the last moment they tried to use her as a human shield, during a brief but deadly battle with an armed reconnaissance unit on routine patrol. Forensic analysis later indicated that she had fired one of the weapons found near her body. MGRR's report: Mexican beauty queen dies with AK-47 at her side.
Today Mexican press sources reported that some of the guns carried by the gunmen, all of whom were killed in the firefight, were sold to them or their associates by a federal agent who helped to supervise Fast and Furious, the covert U.S. gun running operation about which MGRR has written many times. A comprehensive federal report on the program, as well as an earlier operation known as Wide Receiver, was released last Sept 20. U.S. Inspector General files Fast and Furious Report.
The Mexican sources, quoting yesterday's edition of The Wall Street Journal, said that Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) agent George Gillett is under investigation for having sold weapons to narco criminals or their designated purchasing agents in Arizona. The WSJ article said that Gillett "allegedly carried on a private trade in firearms," much to the dismay of the agency for which he still works. Some of his guns turned up at the scene where Miss Sinaloa and her companions died.
WSJ added: "Mr. Gillett is among several former senior officials who last month were recommended for termination by a professional review board as a result of the ill-fated Fast and Furious gun-trafficking operation. Mr. Gillett is no longer in his post in Phoenix, but he remains an ATF employee."
The purpose of both operations was to monitor the use of military grade firearms, and to track cartel movements via hidden GPS devices embedded in the guns. The projects are widely considered to have been strategic blunders, and U.S. congressional hearings on both continue. The disclosure of the programs in early 2011 infuriated Mexico, which has repeatedly said that 80% or more of the weapons carried by drug traffickers and organized crime operatives are sold in the United States.
Jan. 20 - Weapons seizures in Mexico soared under president Felipe Calderón
Dec. 17 - The Second Amendment and the NRA tour Mexico
Dec. 16 - El País asks, "¿Quién desarma a EE UU?" - Who will disarm the United States?
Feb. 16 - "Dear friends in the United States - please, no more assault weapons to Mexico"
MGRR reports on Fast and Furious and Wide Receiver
Two U.S. Officials Quit Over "Fast and Furious" Scandal
Can guns really walk from the U.S. to Mexico?
U.S. Attorney General in the cross-hairs over Fast and Furious
Obama will "stand by his man," Eric Holder
First there was Wide Receiver, then Fast and Furious, and now - "White Gun"
Opinion: In drug war, boundaries and "national sovereignty" mean nothing
Opinion: Mexico's Continuing Agony
Aug. 27: Le Monde lashes out at Mexico's "spiral of barbarism" - and takes a swipe at U.S., too
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