Federal agents and prosecutors in Phoenix ignored public safety concerns and were primarily responsible for the botched effort to infiltrate weapons-smuggling rings in the operation dubbed “Fast and Furious,” according to a report released Wednesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The long-awaited report also directed sharp criticism at senior officials from the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington for lax oversight of the attempt to block the flow of weapons to Mexico’s violent drug cartels. Many of the weapons later turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including one in which a Border Patrol agent was killed.
The inspector general’s report recommended that the Justice Department take disciplinary action against 14 current and former officials from the department and ATF. Among them were Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and former acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson.
“The inspector general did not find persuasive evidence that any supervisor in Phoenix at either the U.S. attorney’s office or ATF raised serious questions or concerns about the risk to public safety posed by the continuing firearms purchases or by the delay in arresting individuals who were engaging in the trafficking,” Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, wrote in the 471-page report. “This failure reflects a significant lack of oversight and urgency by both ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office.”
In describing the failure of officials in Washington, the report said, “Fast and Furious received little or no supervision by ATF headquarters despite its connections to a dangerous narcotics cartel in Mexico, the serious risk it created to public safety in the United States and Mexico and its potential impact on the country’s relationship with Mexico.”
While the report criticized officials in Washington, it said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had no advance knowledge of the tactics and risks involved in the operation.
Holder responded immediately to the report, issuing a statement in which he said its conclusions were consistent with the Justice Department’s own assessment that the strategy was flawed and that the leadership did not attempt to “cover up information or mislead Congress about it.”
He also said that Melson, who had been transferred from the acting director’s post, has resigned from ATF. Jason Weinstein, a deputy attorney general in the criminal division who was criticized in the report, also resigned from the Justice Department, Holder said.
The operation allowed weapons from the United States to pass into the hands of suspected firearms smugglers so that they could be tracked to upper levels of the drug cartels. But ATF lost track of about 2,000 guns; two of the guns linked to a suspected gun trafficker were found at the scene of the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
The report was based on interviews with 130 witnesses and a review of 100,000 documents over the past 18 months, according to the inspector general.
The long-awaited report also directed sharp criticism at senior officials from the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington for lax oversight of the attempt to block the flow of weapons to Mexico’s violent drug cartels. Many of the weapons later turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including one in which a Border Patrol agent was killed.
The inspector general’s report recommended that the Justice Department take disciplinary action against 14 current and former officials from the department and ATF. Among them were Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and former acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson.
“The inspector general did not find persuasive evidence that any supervisor in Phoenix at either the U.S. attorney’s office or ATF raised serious questions or concerns about the risk to public safety posed by the continuing firearms purchases or by the delay in arresting individuals who were engaging in the trafficking,” Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, wrote in the 471-page report. “This failure reflects a significant lack of oversight and urgency by both ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office.”
In describing the failure of officials in Washington, the report said, “Fast and Furious received little or no supervision by ATF headquarters despite its connections to a dangerous narcotics cartel in Mexico, the serious risk it created to public safety in the United States and Mexico and its potential impact on the country’s relationship with Mexico.”
While the report criticized officials in Washington, it said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had no advance knowledge of the tactics and risks involved in the operation.
Holder responded immediately to the report, issuing a statement in which he said its conclusions were consistent with the Justice Department’s own assessment that the strategy was flawed and that the leadership did not attempt to “cover up information or mislead Congress about it.”
He also said that Melson, who had been transferred from the acting director’s post, has resigned from ATF. Jason Weinstein, a deputy attorney general in the criminal division who was criticized in the report, also resigned from the Justice Department, Holder said.
The operation allowed weapons from the United States to pass into the hands of suspected firearms smugglers so that they could be tracked to upper levels of the drug cartels. But ATF lost track of about 2,000 guns; two of the guns linked to a suspected gun trafficker were found at the scene of the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
The report was based on interviews with 130 witnesses and a review of 100,000 documents over the past 18 months, according to the inspector general.