Pubdate: Thu, 09 Feb 2012
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2012 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Dennis Wagner

FAST AND FURIOUS: GUN-STING TARGETS WERE FBI INFORMERS

ATF's Cartel Suspects Worked for Other Agency

Mexican cartel suspects targeted in the troubled gun-trafficking 
probe known as Operation Fast and Furious were actually working as 
FBI informants at the time, according to a congressional memo that 
describes the case's mission as a "failure."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has 
acknowledged that guns were allowed into the hands of Mexican 
criminals for more than a year in the hope of catching "big fish."

The memorandum from staffers with the House Committee on Oversight 
and Government Reform says the FBI and Drug Enforcement 
Administration were investigating a drug-trafficking organization and 
had identified cartel associates a year before the ATF even learned 
who they were. At some point before the ATF's Fast and Furious 
investigation progressed -- congressional investigators don't know 
when -- the cartel members became FBI informants.

"These were the 'big fish,' " says the memo, written on behalf of 
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "DEA 
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had jointly opened a 
separate investigation targeting these two cartel associates. ... 
Yet, ATF spent the next year engaging in the reckless tactics of Fast 
and Furious in attempting to identify them."

According to Issa and Grassley, the cartel suspects, whose names were 
not released, were regarded by FBI as "national-security assets." One 
pleaded guilty to a minor offense. The other was not charged. "Both 
became FBI informants and are now considered unindictable," the memo 
says. "This means that the entire goal of Fast and Furious -- to 
target these two individuals and bring them to justice -- was a failure."

Representatives with the Justice Department and its subagencies 
declined to comment.

In a statement e-mailed to The Republic, Rep. Elijah Cummings of 
Maryland, ranking Democrat on the Oversight committee, disputed GOP 
conclusions and stressed that Issa "has repeatedly made 
unsubstantiated allegations against law-enforcement agencies" while 
investigating Fast and Furious. Cummings agreed that the ATF was 
hampered by communication breakdowns, but he rejected implications 
that other agencies had similar failures.

Fast and Furious was launched by the ATF in November 2009. At the 
same time, the memo says, FBI and DEA agents who were conducting a 
narcotics investigation identified a suspected ringleader of the 
gun-trafficking organization, Manuel Celis-Acosta. According to 
federal records, DEA supervisors shared their discovery with ATF 
agents, but the suspect was not arrested until a year later, when 
guns from Fast and Furious were linked to the murder of U.S. Border 
Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

At that point, the memo says, Celis-Acosta gave names of his Sinaloa 
cartel associates to ATF agents, who learned that they already were 
working for the FBI. The associates are not identified in the 
congressional memo.

The overlap reflects the spiderweb nature of trafficking 
organizations in Arizona and the labyrinth of law-enforcement 
agencies pursuing them.

Celis-Acosta was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2011 
with 19 other suspects on charges related to firearms and marijuana 
trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering. He is awaiting trial in 
U.S. District Court.

According to federal prosecutors, Celis-Acosta's gun-trafficking 
business became involved with a man named Luis Hernandez-Flores, 
allegedly part of a separate marijuana-smuggling organization in the 
Valley. The DEA, working in a task force with Glendale and Phoenix 
police, set up wiretap surveillance to gather evidence against 
Hernandez- Flores and others.

In federal filings, prosecutors say Celis-Acosta identified 
Hernandez- Flores as an illegal-firearms broker for the Mexican cartel figures.

In March 2010, Hernandez-Flores and more than 40 other suspects were 
indicted by a state grand jury. Charges were thrown out in June 2011, 
according to Maricopa County Superior Court records, because a 
Glendale detective supplied false information for a wiretap affidavit.

A judge ruled that the detective, Laura Beeler, was "not a reliable 
witness." Beeler was investigated for alleged perjury but not 
charged. Prosecutors and Beeler's attorney said the problem arose 
from her attempts to shield a confidential informant.

The Republican memo does not address previous ATF assertions that the 
Phoenix-based investigation was aimed at drug lords south of the border.

For example, on Feb. 3, Mexican federal police reportedly seized 
several weapons from Fast and Furious during the arrest of Jose 
Antonio Torres Marrufo, under U.S. indictment and suspected of being 
a top enforcer for Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "Chapo" Guzaman. The 
Los Angeles Times reported last year that 40 other high-powered 
weapons from the case were found at Marrufo's unoccupied home in Juarez.

The Republican staff analysis purportedly is based on investigative 
records and interviews with personnel at federal law-enforcement 
agencies. Investigative documents and transcripts were not made available.

Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform 
Committee, which is leading a congressional probe of Fast and 
Furious. Grassley is ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In their memo to GOP colleagues, they conclude that Fast and Furious 
was not only flawed strategically, but undermined by law-enforcement 
negligence, communication breakdowns and "serious management failures."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom