September 28, 2011 12:40 PM

"Gunwalker" allegation: ATF target was FBI informant

By
Sharyl Attkisson
Topics
News

Confidential sources have told Congressional investigators that a main target ATF was trying to identify in Fast and Furious was actually a DEA confidential informant working with the FBI.

That twist is just part of the new information included in a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) addressed directly to Attorney General Eric Holder, who has indicated he neither knew of nor approved of the "gunwalking" operation that allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels.

According to Grassley and Issa, if the DEA and FBI had shared information with ATF, "then Operation Fast and Furious may have ended as many as ten months sooner than it did. This would have prevented hundreds of assault-type weapons from being illegally straw purchased on behalf of Mexican drug cartels."

Gunwalker probe points to DOJ

The letter outlines an amazing alleged failure of DEA and FBI to share crucial investigative information with ATF.

It says while ATF was trying to identify the unnamed financier behind a gun trafficking ring leader named Manuel Celis-Acosta, the DEA and FBI already knew who the financier was - and had in fact turned him into a confidential informant. Yet, the letter states, the financier was allowed to continue to purchase weapons from Acosta over the course of a year, without ATF ever knowing that the man they were seeking to identify... was a government informant.

ATF Fast and Furious secret audio recordings

The letter also states that prior to becoming a confidential informant, the financier may have used $3,500 in taxpayer money, "official law enforcement funds," to finance weapons trafficking. He allegedly received the money - not knowing it came from the U.S. government -- by selling narcotics to another government confidential informant.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.


  • Sharyl Attkisson

    Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News investigative correspondent based in Washington. All of her stories, videos and blogs are available here.

Add a Comment See all 47 Comments
by PR_in_Alabama October 2, 2011 2:07 PM EDT
The fast and furious operation started over 5 years ago by the ATF. Info from friends that work with ICE.
Reply to this comment
by dan3607 October 2, 2011 9:35 PM EDT
Nope, F&F is an OCDETF case/funding. Started out of the Az US Attorney's office. BTW the information sharing in the first place should have been done by prosecutors out of that office - regarding how F&F (ATF)was steping on the DEA Wire, which BTW both DEA and ATF were focused of uncovering the ring of gun buys (now dicovered to be FBI informants) which were buying guns for another high level cartel criminal (yep another FBI informant) and this was the guy transporting the guns in Mexico. BTW those FBI agents controling those FBI informants will be all over that DEA wire - opps.
Anyway you're thinking about Operation Gunrunner in TX 2008-2009, which was basically a bunch of ATF agents handing out filers to people dealing guns without a license and asking them to stop. Also, doing gun shows survellience - but this was really boring stuff (and completely unrelated to AZ)compared to what was going on in AZ with ATF, DEA and FBI stepping all over themselves.
by DrKnowe October 1, 2011 8:58 PM EDT
Thousands of weapons walked, just to bust one guy?
Nah.
How about, thousands of weapons walked... because we wanted the cartels to have them.
Occams razor.
Reply to this comment
by dan3607 October 1, 2011 9:20 PM EDT
Yep, don't disagree with you on that. Except that the intel agencies are playing that angle and playing it hard. State Dept authorized arms shipments to El Sal. and Hondr. and then the arms depot gets cleaned out/army officer paid off and go out premanent vacation. That's a clean third party transfer to mexicans cartel outfits - who are fighting against the zetas. CIA is more direct - a airfield in New Mexico. The zetas are attacking/threatening overthrow of the mexician gov't so this is balance of power stuff - I don't really have a problem with this.

Regarding your comment - yes one guy (an FBI informant, who is also a member of the Gulf cartel) did traffick all these guns. He had at least 12 people working for him - two of which were also FBI informants (also they were DEA informants as well). After ATF arrested the 12 - the two, of course, disclosed this. As naturally they would.
by dan3607 October 1, 2011 4:45 PM EDT
When the (now gone) acting director of ATF testified in front of issa/congress on July 4 (DOJ tried to stop him and he came in on a holiday with his own attorney) and said that at end of this ATF was going to look good, I thought he had to be kidding.
Now the truth is starting to come out...ATF was tasked to get to the bottom of a large gun trafficking ring and so they watch the gun straw buying (and didn't intervene - which was stupid and against ATF policy). When ATF got the arrest warrants, they were told to hold off by the US attorney's office because DEA had a wire going on against some of the gun buyers. OK fine.
Now we're learning that some of these gun buyers were DEA informants. OK fine. Who were also FBI informants, ok fine again. Who were buying guns for the ringleader and he was bringing these gun to Mexico...yep you guess it...he was an FBI informant also. Guns purchased by FBI money. Listened too and recorded by the DEA on their wire(and I'm sure the prosecutors have the transcipts - which I'm sure they are going to shread as soon as possible)(one can only assume the some of these informants were recorded talking to their FBI handlers and recorded on the DEA wire).
So ATF did get to the bottom of the trafficking ring...the FBI financed by the US Taxpayers.
HA HA this is going to be a great movie one day
Reply to this comment
by Wanblipeshla October 1, 2011 6:26 PM EDT
If you remember Obama told the Brady antigun organization that they had an under the radar operation going to help with gun control. The "Usual Suspects" holder and company have been belly hawing for months about the number of guns going across the boarder into Mexico and fueling the violence.

I addition homeland Security has been screaming about the cross boarder gun trafdficing. Holder is the DOJ man who filed the brief against the Heller decision in DC. Nepalintano at DHS is a long time advocate of gun control and Obama has been on record as one of the toughest adherents to control since being in public office. He has only "appeared' to be neutral since occupying the white house. Now it does not any stretch of the imagination to conclude that the dots connect. With all the sharing of information that is supposed to be going on, since 911 and the creation of the Dept of Homaland Security, all of these alphabet soup agencies are supposed to be sharing info by executive order. Now do you think some orchestrating is NOT going on. This agency is selling to informants of that agency and the informants of that agency are realy buying weapons and sending them south, and by the way they are using ther other agency's money.... It seems that the only people ending up with the guns are the bad guys and all the transferring and gun running is from federal agencies and paid informants, the intellegence people call the assets. So all these agencies and their assets are running guns across the boarder to drug dealers and the line of custody is almost non existant and by "intent" these guns are not being accounted for. In fact they are oficially being obsecured. If the people had not come forward and told we would not know today that federal agencies who police firearms, drugs and crime are providing criminals who deal in drugs and firearms with weapons. All this is under the DOJ and DHS umbrella during an administrations tenure that oppose firearms and are perported to have an "under the radar" operation to persuade the public to have more gun control. The rational basis for this Keystone Cops adventure is the violence in Mexico. Could it all be a "Coincidence"??????
by borakobama October 1, 2011 3:28 PM EDT
Fast & furious had only one objective. It was not illegal emigrants , not drugs pouring into the USA, not about fixing our boarders. It was about blaming our 2nd amendment for the vast violence in Mexico on the USA's gun laws. They (ATF,DOJ) were trying to frame and pin it all on the 2nd amendment ! ! They were trying to manufacture a crises to : DON'T LET A GOOD CRISES GO TO WAIST AND MAKE HUGE INROADS ON squelching AMERICANS FREEDOMS. This all comes from the very top folks !!
Reply to this comment
by simulacrumtoo October 1, 2011 3:20 PM EDT
When will Amerikans wake up and realize that the Fed Govt is creating the boogeymen and the solution. FEDS created Bin Laden and Al Qaida in the 1980's. The Guy the ATF was selling guns to was a CI (Confidential Informant) for the DEA. AKA he worked for the DEA. Come on people wake up. Wake up before it's too late. The 2 party system is TYRANNY. Ron Paul 2012.
Reply to this comment
by LibKiller October 1, 2011 12:10 PM EDT
Only a bunch of LibTard, Girly-Boys would think it was a GOOD idea to sell weapons to Mexican drug cartels. It takes a "Howdy Doody" type of pole smoking liberal such as Obummer (the economy destroyer) to look the other way and pretend it's not happening... and it takes an Army of Liberal Trailer Trash to let Holder and Obummer off the hook. When are these NPR addicted Flexsexual, reproductive-juice-gargling "Freedom Rock" types going to be held accountable for pulling the rug out from underneath the US economy and encouraging warfare on our borders? And we need to abolish the ATF. It's a corrupt agency. And don't forget, the last time a Liberal President was given control, he and his cronies burnt 72 women and children to death in Texas. You wouldn't give a child with Downs Syndrome a Claymore mine to play with, why would you give a LibTaRd the ability to kill his own? He'll do it every time, they can't help themselves.
Reply to this comment
by Soccer_is_so_boring October 1, 2011 11:58 AM EDT
When are people going to address the Godzilla sized gorilla in the room and ask why was "fast and furious" allowed in the first place. Were there people in the government who thought letting weapons walk into Mexico would provide fuel for arguing for stronger gun laws in the United States? It's either that, or sheer incompetence. I think it is the first one and I think it is treasonous.
Reply to this comment
by berlinfoto-2009 October 1, 2011 6:33 AM EDT
Police agencies have the right to use deception in order to make a case and a subsequent arrest.
Most police agencies have taken this to mean that they can, run on going criminal conspiracies, netting enormous profits for the participants, and that the police can, arrest only the individuals that they happen not to like, for some, or any reason.
Is that what the framers of the constitution had in mind, is that what congress had in mind when the fourteenth amendment, was added. The question is how to get the issue of police powers in to a court of law, no judge in the nation would even question this issue, so we are stuck with ever increasing oppression, from the police that want more and more power and control over our lives, and who will lie, cheat, steal and even murder for more power.
Reply to this comment
by Ole76er September 30, 2011 5:38 PM EDT
Eric Holder, as head of the DOJ, should be tried as an accomplice to the murder of Border Agent Brian Terry. Holder has been a disgrace to the Office he heads and should have never been chosen as the Attorney General. Guess that's the advantage you have for being a close, incompetent friend of Obama.

Would like to see Holder take an extended vacation in Mexico.
Reply to this comment
by model67a September 30, 2011 5:52 AM EDT
The more evidence that is exposed makes it harder for members of Congess to deny and vote against impeachment. More and more of the members of Congress are coming on board with Issa, even Democrats. The more evidence that is presented makes the probability of impeachment greater.
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