The head of the ATF’s St, Paul Field Division acknowledged mistakes were made during a botched undercover sting operation of gun and drug dealers at a store in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
The Journal Sentinel recently exposed serious problems during a 10-month ATF sting. Among them: the theft of nearly $40,000 in merchandise; an agent’s machine gun was stolen; wrong suspects were charged; and sensitive information about undercover help was lost.
Scott Sweetow, special agent in charge of the ATF’s St. Paul Field Division, which oversees the Milwaukee office, said some mistakes were made but he also defended the sting.
“Absolutely there were some administrative mistakes made, some procedural mistakes made, and we are very aggressively looking at all of those issues from top to bottom,” Sweetow said, noting that more than 30 people have been arrested as a result of the sting.
