Did Kerlikowske’s first report as drug czar launch ‘Gunrunner’ debacle?

A new assertion that a June 2009 report, signed by then-new drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, the former Seattle police chief, may be at the root of the Gunrunner strategy, and provided its launch pad, appears this morning on Mike Vanderboegh’s “Sipsey Street Irregulars” blog.

It is not the only Evergreen Connection to the Mexican cartel drug wars to surface in the past 24 hours. There is also a connection to a former Yakima-area resident now under arrest in Mexico. More about that in a moment.

Vanderboegh, along with National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, is responsible for unearthing the Gunrunner controversy that is now subject of two Capitol Hill investigations, which have spawned the nickname "Bordergate."

Kerlikowske, who left Seattle to take over as drug czar in May 2009, is currently a top candidate to become Chicago’s next police superintendent. If so, it would be a perfect match. Known for his anti-gun leanings while Seattle’s top cop (he was honored by Washington CeaseFire), Kerlikowske would serve under incoming Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Obama White House chief of staff, whose own anti-gun views are well known.

During his tenure as Seattle police chief, Kerlikowske occasionally testified in Olympia in support of gun control measures. His activity on that front significantly shrank after his pistol was stolen out of his parked police department car on a downtown Seattle street on Dec. 26, 2004 while he took his wife on a post-holiday shopping excursion. The 9mm Glock pistol has never been recovered.

“…Washington CeaseFire is going to honor Chief Kerlikowske for his efforts to restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners, when he can’t even keep track of his own firearm... the chief’s personal 9mm Glock was stolen from his city-owned car while it was parked on a Seattle street, while he and his wife were shopping. Such negligence should not be rewarded.”—Alan Gottlieb, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 2006

The Kerlikowske report, National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, contains an entire chapter on Weapons, with heavy emphasis on Project Gunrunner, which at the time was an interdiction strategy for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. However, Vanderboegh asserts today that Gunrunner was considerably expanded by the Obama administration.

Senator Charles Grassley started asking questions about Gunrunner, and its off-shoot Operation Fast and Furious, in late January, weeks after the slaying of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry in Arizona. Two guns linked to Gunrunner were recovered at the crime scene.

A few weeks later, Congressman Darrell Issa launched his own investigation as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

ATF has been unresponsive to requests and then an Issa subpoena for documents related to the Gunrunner operation. Yesterday, Issa threatened ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson with contempt proceedings. This column reported that development here.

Yesterday, the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, called for Melson to either step down or be fired over his stonewalling.

Meanwhile, Mexican authorities have arrested Martin Omar Estrada Luna, formerly of the Tieton area of Yakima County, as a kingpin in the Los Zetas drug cartel. He had been deported at least three times from this country, the last time in 2009 after doing a stretch in a Nevada prison.

Estrada Luna was arrested over the weekend by the Mexican navy, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic and Seattle Times.

“The man, identified as 34-year-old Martin Omar Estrada Luna, was arrested Saturday by the Mexican navy. Several other suspected members of the Los Zetas drug cartel were also arrested….”—Yakima Herald-Republic

The Los Zetas cartel was mentioned prominently in coverage of the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in February. A gun recovered at that crime scene, in Northern Mexico, was traced back to a transaction in Fort Worth, TX that may also be connected to the Gunrunner operation. This column wrote about that case here.

There is no evidence that Kerlikowske had any knowledge of Gunrunner’s problems. There is nothing to indicate that his current effort to become Chicago’s police superintendent, and thus depart his post with the Obama administration, may have been prompted by either Grassley’s or Issa’s Gunrunner probes. This column has mentioned Kerlikowske in connection with Gunrunner before here.

According to court documents filed in both cases, a Dallas ATF confidential informant (CI) arranged a meeting in early November 2010 with individuals who had firearms to be transported from

Dallas to Laredo. The meeting was arranged related to an investigation of Los Zetas, a notoriously violent and ruthless drug trafficking organization. The weapons in question were ultimately seized by U.S. law enforcement near Laredo, before crossing the U.S./Mexico border.—Justice Department press release

It does fit a Kerlikowske pattern though, that saw him changing jobs in law enforcement frequently before becoming Seattle police chief. He was police chief in two Florida cities and in Buffalo, NY. He also worked for the Justice Department under former anti-gun Attorney General Janet Reno before coming to Seattle, where he was chief from 2001 to 2009. That was the longest he stayed in one job.

Kerlikowske would feel right at home for another reason. The Chicago Police Department yesterday announced its “concerns” about a concealed carry proposal now before the Illinois Legislature.

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