BATFE - Grenade Walker

Jean Babtiste Kingery - not prosecuted by BATFE, but 

arrested in Mexico 9-7-11 and charged with supplying 

the Sinaloa Federation Drug Cartel with hand grenades 

and explosives.

Earlier today, I posted a blog about Kaibiles de Guatemala. A portion of that dealt with, "Hand grenades sold to the Guatemalan military by Israel for military applications and issued to Los Kaibiles have made their way into the hands of various drug cartels. (oops)"

I received e-mail asking whether or not that had anything to do with the now infamous case in which marginally competent BATFE Special Agents and US Attorneys let hand grenades "walk into Mexico" without informing the Mexican Government - because "it would have embarrassed the BATFE". It's comforting to note that BATFE puts its reputation ahead of the lives of Mexican citizens - and by extension US citizens. We wouldn't want to see that bent badge tarnished, would we?

Oddly enough, Jean Babtiste Kingery sold hand grenades to the Sinaloa Federation - the same cartel which received the bulk of the 2,000 + weapons in the Fast and Furious scandal. Just a coincidence.

(CBS NEWS - Sharyl Attkisson reporting) "Grenadewalker" refers to another controversial ATF case out of Phoenix. In it, Jean Baptiste Kingery allegedly smuggled parts for as many as 2,000 grenades from the US to Mexico for killer drug cartels, sometimes under the direct watch of US law enforcement. 

Sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted twice in the US for violating export control laws but that each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case. In one instance, Kingery had allegedly been caught leaving the US with 114 disassembled grenades in a tire, but the ATF agent on the case says he was ordered by the US Attorney's office to let Kingery go because the grenade parts were "novelty items" and the case "lacked jury appeal." A year and a half after Kingery was first let go, Mexican authorities raided Kingery's stash house and factory and found materials for 1,000 grenades. Kingery allegedly admitted teaching cartels how to make grenades as well as helping cartel members convert semi-automatic rifles to fully-automatic.

Gustavo Rosario Torres - the focus of an attack by
Los Zetas on May 20, 2012 in Tobasco.

That's not the hand grenade case that I referred to where Kaibiles de Guatemala were apparently involved. Gustavo Rosario Torres a former prosecutor from Tobasco, had a dispute with Los Zetas that led Los Zetas to attack on him at his home on May 20, 2012. Three hand grenades were thrown and detonated.

I have perused the MEXGOV file of this attack. The investigation file contained photographs of hand grenade pins and rings and hand grenade spoons. The spoons had Spanish writing on them.

When I reviewed the file, I told the person who gave it to me, “I hope that those grenades didn’t originate in the US.” You see, I had concerns that they may have been part of those hand grenade - bombs that Jean Babtiste Kingery smuggled into Mexico.

It turns out that the hand grenades thrown in this attack came from a lot of 200 that went missing or were stolen from the Guatemalan Army. They had been manufactured in Israel. In addition to MEXGOV officials, US BATFE examined the explosive evidence (post-blast investigation) and confirmed that. There have been other hand grenades from the same lot thrown at SEDENA troops in Chiapas in the past.