By Richard A. Serrano Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators probing the controversial “Fast and Furious” anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday. The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration…
By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Page The Obama administration took a concrete step toward curbing the flow of semiautomatic weapons to Mexico last week when it adopted a new regulation mandating the reporting of multiple sales of long guns to federal authorities. Under the regulation, some 8,500 licensed gun shops in Arizona, California, New…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Last October in Orlando, at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the heads of the ATF field offices gathered for a SAC meeting. It was there where it was announced that William Newell, head of the Phoenix office, would become the ATF’s attache to Mexico. Newell, an up and comer…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com More is coming out about the adventures of mobster James “Whitey’’ Bulger, who was captured last week after 16 years on the lam. The Boston Globe reports that during those 16 years he returned to Boston in disguise and “armed to the teeth’’ several times “to take care of some unfinished…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Certainly this comes as no surprise. A Congressional report released Monday concludes that American military-style weapons are arming Mexico’s violent drug organizations at an alarming rate and policy makers are not adequately responding. “Congress has been virtually moribund while powerful Mexican drug trafficking organizations continue to gain unfettered access to military-style…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The drug cartels are using bullet-proof trucks known as “monsters”, according to CNN. CNN reports that the trucks are built on a three-axle truck bed and include such features as swiveling turrets to shoot in any direction,a reinforced steel battering ram in front to demolish vehicles and walls and a one-inch-thick…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A just-released Senate report on Mexico drug trafficking urges judicial and police reforms in Mexico and calls for the Obama Administration to provide more resources to its southern neighbor and to do more to starve Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations of the money that fuels them. The report, issued by The U.S….
