Operation Fast and Furious

 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) acting in collusion with a wide variance of intergovernmental agencies on a Federal level, through the authorization of Eric Holder, the 82^nd Attorney General of the United States; orchestrated a series of “gun walking” sting operations between 2006 and 2011 under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner (A Federally coordinated operation devised in principal by the ATF. The aforementioned initiative was formulated as an instrument of obstruction pursuant to the illegal distribution/ smuggling of firearms into Mexican government jurisdiction through the interdiction of straw purchasers and gun traffickers operating within the southern periphery of the continental United States, specifically along the border separating the two nations). The process of “gunwalking” or “letting guns walk” served as a tactical precursor to the project’s stated objective whereby the ATF knowingly permitted the dissemination of thousands of weapons and ammunition stores to suspected arms traffickers through straw purchaser intermediaries (A straw purchase exists as any transaction made on behalf of parties for who such services are unattainable or prohibited due to legal constraints) at the behest of large-scale Mexican drug cartels.

 

 

Such transactions were orchestrated, in principle, to monitor the distribution of small arms to prospective clientele acting as representatives for key figures within the Mexican narcotics industry. In theory such an initiative would culminate with the apprehension of individuals comprising the upper echelons of such organizations, yielding their eventual dissolution. Operation Fast and Furious, by far the most significant “gunwalking” probe, led to the sale and distribution of more than 2,000 firearms, of which fewer than 700 were recovered as of October 20, 2011. Documented instances relevant to the misappropriation of firearms utilized in the aforementioned government initiative would later become the catalyst for a series of violent altercations involving the civilian population on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and the criminal element seeking to establish dominion over the surrounding area.