Pubdate: Wed, 10 Nov 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: Front Page, continued on page A17
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Richard A. Serrano, Reporting from Washington
Referenced: The Justice Department review 
http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e1101.pdf

Mexico Under Siege

U.S. GUN EFFORT FAULTED

Flaws in a Federal Program Let Weapons Flow South to Drug Gangs, a 
Review Finds.

A much-touted federal effort to keep U.S. firearms out of the Mexican 
drug wars is unwieldy, mismanaged and fraught with "significant 
weaknesses" that could doom gun smuggling enforcement on the border 
to failure, an internal Justice Department review concluded Tuesday.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and 
Explosives focus only on small gun sales and do not share information 
with law enforcement officials on both sides of the border, the 
review said. Even the cornerstone effort of tracing U.S. guns in 
Mexico too often comes up short because of missing data and the lack 
of U.S. training for Mexican police, it found.

The investigation by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine is the first to 
find systemic problems in a once highly praised project, and it 
mirrors concerns of many on the border that weapons from the U.S. are 
helping the violence spiral out of control.

About 30,000 people have been killed in Mexican cartel violence since 
President Felipe Calderon started deploying troops to take on the 
drug and gun traffickers in December 2006. Nearly 70,000 
U.S.-originated firearms were recovered in Mexico between 2007 and 2009.

About 7,000 licensed U.S. gun dealers operate near the 2,000-mile 
border, and cartel leaders often hire straw buyers to purchase 
firearms and pay others to transport the weapons into Mexico. Just as 
the drugs flow steadily north, the guns reach Mexico secreted under 
truck beds or stashed in car trunks, sometimes even hidden in clothing.

ATF officials defended their marquee program, named Project 
Gunrunner, saying it has gone a long way in combating the illegal 
flow of U.S. firearms into Mexico since it was started in Texas in 
2005 and expanded nationwide a year later.

Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF's deputy director, said in a lengthy 
rebuttal letter to the inspector general's report that there had been 
"significant accomplishments," with gun investigations up by 109% and 
prosecutions up by 54% under the project.

But he said a reduction in funds had limited some gun-tracing 
operations and had stalled attempts by the ATF to place more U.S. 
agents in Mexican police stations to work on joint investigations.

He said funding last year covered only seven of the 23 agents needed 
to expand intelligence operations and that funding for the remaining 
16 was not authorized this fiscal year.

Fine acknowledged the budget restraints but said he was concerned 
that the ATF was not using its current manpower wisely. He said the 
ATF "does not systematically and consistently exchange intelligence 
with its Mexican and some U.S. partner agencies," including the Drug 
Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As examples, Fine said that "ATF and ICE do not regularly conduct 
joint investigations of firearms trafficking to Mexico, do not 
consistently notify each other of their firearms trafficking cases, 
and do not consistently coordinate their investigative work with each other."

U.S. and Mexican officials estimate that more than 90% of the guns 
seized at the border or taken after raids and shootouts in Mexico 
originated in the United States, with California and Texas the 
largest providers.

And just as the U.S. is pushing Mexico to do more to stop the drugs, 
Mexico wants the American guns halted at the border. When President 
Obama visited Mexico last year, Calderon appealed for him to do more. 
The Mexican leader reiterated his position last week. "We do not want 
them to continue sending to Mexico, illegally, dirty money and 
weapons," he said.

Mexican Sen. Sebastian Calderon Centeno accused the U.S. of 
"doublespeak" by demanding the drugs stop while the guns keep pouring 
south. "The U.S. government does nothing to stop it," he said.

Thomas Mangan, a career ATF agent in Phoenix, acknowledged Tuesday 
that the agency was fighting an uphill battle. "We've got a couple of 
things coming up, some wiretaps on some gun trafficking operations, 
some really good stuff coming up," he said. "But has the violence 
slowed down in Mexico? No, it hasn't."

An ATF supervisor in south Texas, who asked not to be identified, was 
equally frustrated. "Mexican officials don't have the training to 
correctly trace the guns, and we don't have enough agents to go down 
there and train them," he said.

He said there were more Border Patrol agents in tiny Nogales, Ariz., 
"than we have in our whole agency." There are only 2,500 ATF agents 
in the country, and the Border Patrol has about 3,300 agents in the 
Tucson Sector, which patrols Nogales. And he and other agents worry 
that ATF funds will be cut even further when Republicans take control 
of the House next year and the National Rifle Assn. steps up its 
Capitol Hill lobbying efforts. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake