Ken Melson and Dennis Burke/atf photo By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — ATF is creating seven new anti-gunrunner groups around the country to try and cut the flow of illegal firearms to Mexico. In announcing the new move, ATF said it was placing the groups “along traditional and newly-discovered firearms trafficking routes and hubs” in…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Two undercover ATF agents agents infiltrated the violent Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle Gang and derailed a plot to kill rival Hells Angels members with homemade grenades, the New York Daily News reported. That interesting tidbit came out as federal agents rounded up 19 members and associates of the Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle Gang,…
By The Washington Post Editorial Page WASHINGTON — ONLY ABOUT 10 percent of the nation’s 100,000 licensed gun dealers are audited each year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF cannot fine wayward dealers; its only tool at the moment involves revoking a miscreant’s license. And that happens only about…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com An El Paso FBI agent is headed off to prison. John Shipley, now formerly of the FBI, was sentenced Tuesday in El Paso to two years in prison for illegally selling more than $118,000 worth of guns without a license and lying to ATF agents about the sales. U.S. District Judge…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A 55-year-old Texas cop had a nice little thing going — that is until he got busted by ATF and the Texas Rangers. Authorities charged that Harry Leroy Kelly, as a cop with the Cleveland Police Department in Liberty County, Tex., sold guns and ammunition from the evidence room. He is…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Andrew Traver, head of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Chicago could soon be nominated to take the top job in the agency, Al Kamen of the Washington Post reports. The Post said Traver would be the first-ever Senate-confirmed ATF director. A source has told ticklethewire.com that two…
By Allan Lengel For AOL News WASHINGTON — From Capitol Hill to the Caribbean, a controversy is growing over a decision by Virgin Islands officials to charge a federal agent with second-degree murder in a 2008 shooting. The agent, William Clark, remains on the job at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives —…
By Allan lengel ticklethewire.com There are mailboxes. And then there are mailboxes that belong to federal prosecutors. As for the latter, those mailboxes get special attention. The Palm Beach Post reports that the FBI, ATF and U.S. Postal Service are investigating a firework on Sunday that triggered a fire in the mailbox of an assistant…
