The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel just published a blockbuster story that’s today’s must read: Based on court records, police reports and dozens of interviews, the paper details how the ATF used “rogue” tactics — including providing underage youths with alcohol and allowing them to smoke pot — to run storefront gun and drug stings across the country.

In our estimation the most explosive allegation made in the report is that the agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used mentally disabled people to run their stings.

In cases across the country, ATF agents recruited mentally disabled men to promote their “businesses” and recruit other illegal gun purchasers. In one case, the paper reports, the agents running Squid’s Smoke Shop in Portland, Ore., convinced Aaron Key, 19, and described as “mentally disabled,” to get a tattoo of a squid on his neck to promote the store.

Key agreed and agents posted pictures of him to their fake Facebook page. When the sting came to an end, Key was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “selling a sawed-off shotgun and arranging for prostitutes to come to a party being thrown by the undercover agents.”

More: Report Details ATF’s Use of Mentally Disabled in Gun Stings : The Two-Way : NPR

This is the whole investigative journalist’s article.