In June 2011, it was discovered that two assault rifles sold under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) program known as “Operation Gunrunner” (aka Fast and Furious) were used in the 2010 abduction and murder of a Mexican lawyer.
The victim, Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez, a high-profile attorney, and brother of former attorney general of Chihuahua, Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, was kidnapped in October 2010 by gunmen working for the Sinaloa Cartel. Over the course of two weeks, he was repeatedly tortured before being killed by his captors.
The cartel posted several videos online which show Rodriguez bound and repeatedly being electrocuted by hooded men.
His body was unearthed a month after his murder, just outside the kidnappers’ compound.
Fox News later reported that U.S. law enforcement officials have confirmed that two AK-47s purchased in Arizona by a straw buyer, under Fast and Furious and allowed to be taken across the border were recovered during the investigation of Rodriguez’ murder.
Of course, in addition to the murders of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, hundreds of Mexicans have been killed with guns traced back to Fast and Furious.
Last year, ATF Special Agent John Dodson testified before Congress that Operation Gunrunner made possible the sale of roughly 2,500 firearms. Only 700 of those have been recovered by at crime scenes throughout Mexico and the U.S.
Given this, it is impossible to estimate the number of Mexican murders which are yet to occur at the hands of cartel gunmen who have basically been armed by the U.S. government.
Supposedly, Mexican officials were not informed that the weapons were part of the now infamous ATF program until June 2011.
Even if we accept that bit of information as fact, it is difficult to understand why Mexican officials who regularly pressure the U.S. government to prosecute Border Patrol agents and local police who interfere with the flow of human and drug smuggling have not taken any such actions in the past year against ATF agents in the Phoeniz office, or even against U.S. Attorney Generall Eric Holder himself.
Yet, not only has the Mexican government not taken any legal action against U.S. officials involved in Fast and Furious, they have not even offered any public criticism over the disastrous program.
Remember, this is the same Mexican government which signed onto a lawsuit against the state of Arizona after that sovereign state passed SB1070 to protect its citizens from illegal aliens and drug smugglers.
The following is a list of but a few U.S. law enforcement officers who were prosecuted at the behest of the Mexican government:
-Border Patrol Agent Gary Brugman was charged by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton with violating the rights of an illegal alien in January 2001. The following year he was convicted and spent two years in federal prison.
Agent Brugman was working in the very tough border region of Eagle Pass, Texas. He responded to a scene where another agent was having trouble with a group of 10-12 apprehended people caught crossing our border illegally. Two of them would not comply, so Agent Brugman pushed one of the men onto the ground. This minor incident was enough for Sutton to charge Brugman with violating the illegal alien's constitutional rights "under the color of law."
During Brugman's trial, Sutton actually brought a convicted drug smuggler whom Agent Brugman had arrested from his prison cell to testify against him.
Incredibly, Johnny Sutton did an interview on the Spanish language network Univision in which he stated he was making an example out of Agent Brugman.
In addition to his service as a Border Patrol agent, Brugman is a Coast Guard veteran. He spent 16 years of his life defending this nation. He is now free and actively telling his story in hopes that justice will soon come to Johnny Sutton.
-Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to11 and 12 year federal prison sentences respectively. Sutton charged these two men with assault with a deadly weapon, various firearms charges, and with violating a drug smuggler's civil rights.
In February 2005, Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean spotted a van headed across the border into the United States. The agents gave chase and one of them ended up in a scuffle with a Mexican drug smuggler known as Osbaldo Aldrete-Davilla. One of the agents saw a gun in the smuggler's hand and fired at him, before Aldrete-Davilla fled back across the border into Mexico. The smuggler was shot in the buttocks and was observed jumping into an awaiting vehicle on the Mexican side of the border.
The van driven by the smuggler was left behind along with 743 pounds of marijuana. A few months later, he was caught once again smuggling drugs into this country. While in custody, he was given immunity from prosecution in both cases in exchange for his testimony against Agents Ramos and Compean. In addition to immunity, the taxpayers assisted him with travel expenses and provided him with medical treatment at a U.S. Army facility in Texas. Once Aldrete-Davilla testified and completed his medical treatments, he promptly filed a $5 million lawsuit against the U.S. Border Patrol for violating his rights.
Sutton's office received a great deal of public criticism for his treatment and unfair prosecution of these two agents, while Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) led a Republican movement in Congress to pardon these two men. Of course, president Bush commuted the sentences of Ramos and Compean on his last day of office. However, the felony conviction remains on their records and the two men can no longer work in law enforcement.
-When Deputy Gilmer Hernandez made a routine traffic stop in April 2005, little did he know that this incident would lead to the loss of his freedom. It turned out that the driver was a human smuggler with several Mexican nationals hiding in the vehicle. After being approached, the driver hit the gas and tried to run over Dep. Hernandez. The deputy fired his weapon at the tires of the van, at which time a bullet fragment hit a woman who was hiding in the back of the vehicle, her injuries were limited to a scratch on the cheek. Another person in the van received a similar injury.
The shooting was investigated by the Edwards County Sheriff's Department, The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety. All of the agencies deemed the action taken by Deputy Hernandez as justifiable. However, more than a year later, Sutton reopened the case and prosecuted Deputy Hernandez for violating the civil rights of the two injured illegal aliens. Hernandez served a one year sentence in a federal prison.
-Border Patrol Agent Noe Aleman and his wife adopted his wife's nieces from Mexico, after the girls' father died. The couple paid $40,000 in legal fees to adopt the girls ages 12, 13, and 15. Despite the steep fees, the attorney they hired was apparently incompetent and made several errors on the adoption and immigration forms. Agent Aleman himself pointed out these errors to immigration authorities and attempted to correct them. For his honesty, Agent Aleman was arrested and prosecuted by Sutton's office for alien smuggling. He received a one year sentence and was incarcerated in the same prison where Agent Ramos was initially held.
Noe Aleman served with the Border Patrol for 12 years and is highly respected for his aggressive pursuits of illegal aliens and drug smugglers alike. However, in an effort to defame Agent Aleman, Johnny Sutton even suggested that the real purpose for the adoption was so that Aleman could molest the little girls, who during the grand jury hearing were referred to by Sutton's assistant as "little whores!"
In 2007, Aleman told Jerome Coursi of WorldNetDaily: "I'm just another victim in George Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, and Johnny Sutton's was against Border Patrol agents."
The three girls were sent to an orphanage in Mexico, after being deported.
There is evidence in two of the aforementioned cases that the Mexican government became directly involved and influenced Sutton's office to prosecute the officers.
On March 4, 2005, the U.S. Consulate in Mexico contacted Sutton's office with information given by the Mexican government that they had a drug smuggler who had been shot by a Border Patrol Agent. The Department of Homeland Security began their investigation of Agents Ramos and Compean the very same day!
On April 18, 2005, Mexican Consul Jorge Ernesto Espejel Montes sent a letter to Sutton's office demanding that Deputy Gilmer Hernandez be prosecuted for injuring Maricela Rodriguez Garcia (the woman whose cheek was scratched while hiding in the smuggler's van). It was not until Sutton received this letter that his investigation of Dep. Hernandez began.
Given the fact that the government of Mexico often interjects itself in U.S. legal matters as well as politics and has the collective nerve to complain about the deportation of their citizens who enter this country illegally, it simply does not make sense that we have not heard a word of criticism for an official policy responsible for the murder of hundreds of Mexican citizens...in Mexico.
However, their silence only makes sense if Fast and Furious was a joint U.S./Mexican operation.
Why would Mexico agree to such a deadly plan?
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