What Doomed Fast & Furious
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Even before hundreds of guns went across the border as part of Operation Fast and Furious, an interagency communication gap had left the investigation doomed, recently released information suggests.
Unknown to the ATF agents leading the probe, the top possible targets of their investigation were working as FBI informants and were essentially “unindictable,” according to congressional investigators and documents connected to the case.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives launched the investigation planning to go beyond arresting “straw buyers” and take down a whole cross-border gun-running ring. But it could never have reached its top targets, two brothers named Miramontes from the El Paso area, because they were protected “national security assets,” says a Feb. 1 memo by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
The revelation speaks to a broader issue especially pertinent in the border region, some current and former federal agents say: The area is rife with agencies working organized-crime investigations, and sometimes their interests conflict.
“Information sharing among agencies - it’s ridiculous,” said Brandon Judd, head of the Tucson-Sector local of the Border Patrol agents union. “People guard their intel like it’s gold.”