(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Former ATF official Peter Forcelli, who blew the whistle on the bureau’s Obama-era Operation Fast & Furious Scandal, recently said he believes that the government is still allowing the streets to be flooded with illegal weapons.
In an interview with the Second Amendment Foundation published Tuesday, Forcelli said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, which is overseen by U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino, suffers from a “culture of laziness and ineptness and a fear of getting beaten in court.”
“The U.S. Attorney is turning a blind eye to straw purchases, which is fueling what’s going on in Mexico,” he said.
“The prosecutors who work there haven’t changed their ways. They have a habit of kicking the can down the road and not taking straw purchase cases. These are not purchasers who are buying guns for target shooters. These are guys who are sending guns to Mexico to slaughter human beings.”
Forcelli also reportedly said that the Arizona U.S. Attorney is still hesitant to take “proffers,” which is when a suspect offers some information so law enforcement can determine whether they want to extend formal cooperation in exchange for more information. The USAO is supposed to answer proffers in writing, but the Phoenix office is only answering verbally to avoid having their responses documented.
“They were sheepish about straw purchases and very hesitant to proffer anybody,” Forcelli said. “They still don’t decline cases in writing. The declinations are made verbally. If the shit hits the fan, they can deny it. That’s the scam they pull.”
Operation Fast and Furious was an Obama-era scandal where the ATF purposely allowed illegal gun purchases under the guise of tracking organized crime. The operation never resulted in the arrests of any organized crime leaders, and it became a national scandal when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by a Fast and Furious firearm in 2010.
Meanwhile, the ATF still doesn’t even know how many guns are still on the streets from the original Fast and Furious scandal.
The U.S. government reportedly lost 2,000 firearms during Operation Fast and Furious, of which only 710 were recovered as of February 2012.
In April, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked ATF Director Steven Dettelbach how many more have been recovered since then, and the ATF boss said he didn’t know.
Biggs said one of the Fast and Furious guns has recently been used in a crime. Biggs didn’t provide details of this crime, but said the ATF is now questioning the firearms dealer from which the gun emanated.
Forcelli, who worked in the ATF’s Phoenix office from 2007 to 2011 before becoming a senior official until his retirement in October 2021, is publishing a book next month entitled, The Deadly Path: How Operation Fast and Furious and Bad Lawyers Armed the Mexican Cartels.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
