BATFE Screwed the Pooch in Milwaukee

Another BATFE screw up?

You be the judge.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the story today. Fox News followed along with a story of their own. And poorly executed law enforcement work draws Congress in much the same way as other things draw flies.

The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) created a phony storefront, named it Fearless Distributing, staffed it with undercover agents and created a Facebook page that lured people to the location all under the guise of selling clothes and shoes. The ATF agents handed out business cards with a logo similar to the one from the movie “The Expendables” with the words “buy, sell or trade” on them. Once the store was up and running, agents spread the word that Fearless Distributing was willing to buy guns and drugs.

So far, it looks like a typical 'storefront operation' that the federal government loves to run. It's set to get the dumbest of criminals and they cast a wide net. The funding is budgeted as a "Group One" program.  As usual, results matter and money is secondary -- but does it constitute entrapment? Not in a federal courtroom the way it would usually play out in a state court. The agents in one case paid $1,200 for a firearm that would normally sell for between $400 and $700. 

Keystone Cops?

Not yet. But it's coming...

On Sept. 13, 2012, three weapons – including an M-4 machine gun – were stolen from an agent’s parked car. The very next day one of the weapons -- as well as another unrelated one -- were sold back to agents for $1,400. The M-4 and Smith & Wesson 9mm are still unaccounted for.

Senator Charles Grassley responds:

"The Journal Sentinel story reads more like an accounting of the Keystone Cops instead of a federal law enforcement agency," Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. "I'll be asking the ATF questions because if the operation was handled as badly as it was reported, it puts yet another major stain on the agency."

David Salkin unknowingly rented his building at 1220 E. Meinecke Ave. to BATFE, from which they ran their sting operation. Burglars broke into the business, ending the operation. Salkin says BATFE owes him $15,000 for damage and unpaid utility bills. The agency has refused to pay.

Typical.

Post Mortem

The Group One undercover operation didn't result in arrests or convictions of major dealers and they didn't take down a gang. $35,000 in merchandise was stolen from the undercover store and a military style machine-gun is now on the streets of Milwaukee. BATFE is in embroiled in a civil lawsuit with David Salkin who says that he's owed $15,000 because of utility bills, holes in the walls, broken doors and damage from an overflowing toilet.

When the 10-month operation was shut down after the burglary, agents and Milwaukee police officers who participated in the sting cleared out the store but left behind a sensitive document that listed names, vehicles and phone numbers of undercover agents.

Oops.

The sting resulted in charges being filed against about 30 people, most for low-level drug sales and gun possession counts. But agents had the wrong person in at least three cases. In one, they charged a man who was in prison - as a result of an earlier ATF case - at the time agents said he was selling drugs to them.

Were the special agents lying, careless or stupid? It looks like Congress will have the last word on that account.

Other cases reveal that the agency's operation was paying such high prices that some defendants bought guns from stores such as Gander Mountain and sold them to the agents for a quick profit. 

Why not? And back to entrapment, were the amounts that the government spent to buy the firearms so great as to entrap? If you can buy them from a store and then sell them to federal agents down the street for double or triple the money, would that lure an financially strapped person to make the deal? Should they go to prison for it?

ATF spokesman Special Agent Robert Schmidt declined to say how much the sting operation cost.

Group One budgets are usually one million dollars. It would be interesting to see how much the budgeted amount that BATFE actually spent.

Milwaukee is among 31 cities where the ATF has dedicated a Violent Crime Impact Team. The teams are supposed to target "hot spots" - small, high-crime areas - and go after the "worst of the worst" violent criminals, according to the agency's Best Practices report. 

The agency launched the initiative in 2004 and quickly reported "enormous" success. Agency officials touted a drop in firearm-related homicides in pilot cities and credited the $35 million effort with helping local police departments solve other crimes. 

But a U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General's report two years later found no evidence that the teams reduced firearm crimes in the targeted areas. Authors of the report cited "inadequate direction" and "ineffective oversight" by the agency. 

"We found that ATF based its analysis on insufficient data and faulty comparisons," the report stated.

No matter what happens, BATFE or any federal agency will claim success. The US Government has never been long on the truth and there is no reason to see a change of pace here.

Daniel Stiller, head of the federal defender's service in Milwaukee, said such undercover operations are rare. The case involving Gladney and Bryant suggested to him that those defendants weren't major criminals given they got guns from a store, not the street.

"I have to guess a true criminal on the streets of Milwaukee has the ability to obtain a firearm when needed from something other than a store," Stiller said.

I think that most people would agree.

The operation ran into more trouble in October, when burglars broke into the building housing Fearless and cleaned out the ATF operation. 

Late on Oct. 9, burglars made off with jewelry, clothing, auto parts, purses, Nike shoes and more, according to police reports. No one has been charged in the burglary. 

The lease states that the alarm is included in the rent. But shortly after Fearless moved in, Salkin said he told the people running the store he was cutting the phone line, which connected the alarm. He said he assumed they would hook up their own alarm. They did not. 

"You would think the ATF would know that," Salkin said.

We're clearly at the Keystone Cops level at this point in the saga.

Business owner, Salkin, said by going over on the $800 a month utility allotment and damage to walls, doors and carpeting, the ATF owes him about $15,000, which includes a month of lost rent. 

The ATF has balked, saying there was less than $3,200 in damage and telling Salkin to return the security deposit. They told him to file a claim with the federal government and warned him to stop contacting them. 

In an email to Salkin, ATF attorney Patricia Cangemi wrote, "If you continue to contact the Agents after being so advised your contacts may be construed as harassment under the law. Threats or harassment of a Federal Agent is of grave concern. Utilizing the telephone or a computer to perpetrate threats or harassment is also a serious matter."

Wow. One would think that with a million dollar budget, they could afford to clean up after the whole thing went haywire. So much for secrecy.

Turns out, the ATF has weapons stolen or loses them more frequently than the public might think, according to a 2008 report from the Office of the Inspector General with the U.S. Department of Justice. 

In a five-year span from 2002-'07, for example, 76 ATF weapons were stolen, lost or missing, according to the report. That's nearly double the number compared with the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, when considering rates per 1,000 agents.

Is anyone who has read this far surprised?

If you're really interested, reading the articles that were linked at the top of this page is a good idea. I quoted from the Journal Sentinel (highlighted).

This is the same agency that created Operation Fast and Furious and the same agency that will be getting more and special powers from the President of the United States under his new firearms initiative.

I think that I may move to Mexico just to be safe from well meaning federal agents. 

On the Practice of Lying

In Mexico the army and the federal police water board everyone just to make sure that they have the story straight. (the Mexicans use a bottle of Tihuacan and a filthy rag but it's still water boarding). And while BATFE doesn't do that, they have a real bad habit of lying about damned near everything which means that nobody will trust them even when they assert ---- "we're not lying this time." The Mexicans proudly boast that they torture prisoners and they break. They don't lie about what they do...well not all the time.

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. 

Corruption Runs DEEP in BATF

Mexicans grow very tired of the high-handed USGOV talk of corruption in high places in the government in Mexico when the fish rots from the head down in the US as well.

By now, I'm sure that you heard that ATF Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge George Gillett's personal handgun was found at the scene of a gun battle between the Mexican Army (SEDENA) and the Sinaloa Federation. The matter is all the more infamous because Maria Susana Gamez, a Mexican beauty queen was one of five dead at the scene.

Fox News asked, "How did a gun belonging to a former assistant special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives end up at a crime scene in Mexico where five died, including a Mexican beauty queen?" But it's not just Fox News and the American Congress who want answers. The Mexican people want them too. And they don't hear President Obama talking about anything but going to Hawaii on vacation for three weeks.

Maria Susana Flores Gamez, 

deceased beauty queen

We know that President Obama won't be doing much about this because his fingerprints and those of Attorney General Eric Holder are all over Operation Fast and Furious, the US Government program that allowed over 2,000 firearms to be transferred from the US to Mexico through straw buyers. In addition to the handgun registered personally to ASAC Gilette, another weapon found at the crime scene was traced to a Uriel Patino, who illegally bought more than 600 guns and is a main suspect in the controversial Operation Fast and Furious run out of the Phoenix office of the ATF. 

After the Fast and Furious scandal broke, ASAC Gillette was promoted and sent to BATF Headquarters to a cushy liaison job (requiring almost no work at all). Some maintain that this was his reward for keeping his mouth shut about what he knew.

I suspect that Attorney General Holder didn't know that he provided his own Fabrique National (FN) 57 handgun to the cartels as well. Was it a personal gift to the Sinaloa Federation in appreciation? I don't know. Maybe Mr. Gillette can tell us. Only he really knows the whole story. We do know that George Gillette lied on his application to purchase the handgun. 

(Fox News) Gillett purchased the weapon at Legendary Arms, a Phoenix gun store. On the federal form 4473 used to buy the gun, Gillett used the ATF office address, 201 East Washington, and said "Apt 940." On subsequent purchase, Gillett used a commercial address, that of a strip mall. 

Both actions are illegal, since ATF regulations require buyers use their residential address. "Lying on form 4473 is a felony and can be punished by up to five years in prison in addition to fines," Sen. Charles Grassley said in a letter Wednesday to Michael Horowitz in the Office of Inspector General. "I request that you initiate an investigation into these matters and that you specifically examine whether Mr. Gillett was the purchaser as indicated by these documents, why the forms list multiple, inaccurate residential addresses while purchasing the weapons, and how the weapon purchased on January 7, 2010 ended up in Mexico."

Does anyone really believe that Attorney General Holder wants to see George Gillette sent to prison for five years? If that happens, will Gillette break and go public with his story?

FN Herstal 

(Fox News) "Why would the assistant in charge of that office be buying guns in the first place?" Grassley said in an interview with Fox News. That would raise the question of the extent to which that person might be involved in the gun trafficking that was going on and profiting from it. ... These are legitimate questions."

Assistant Special Agent in Charge George Gillette says that he sold the handgun on the Internet because he'd "run into a few financial problems". Note that sales of this particular handgun are restricted to law enforcement and the military. AND the ASAC is selling it on the INTERNET? Nobody in Mexico will believe that lie. The fish rots from the head down and George Gillette is not the head of the fish. 

The Herstal pistol is nicknamed a "cop-killer" because of its designation as a "weapon of choice" for Mexican drug cartels.