Another Fast & Furious Gun Turns Up at Mexican Crime Scene

Another gun from the disastrous Fast and Furious gun-walking program has turned up at a shooting in Mexico, authorities report.

On December 31, a U.S. official reported that a firearm that turned up in a gunfight at Puerto Peñasco, Mexico–a town just across the border from Arizona–was tracked to the failed program carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The shootout occurred on December 18 near a luxury hotel in an area known as Rocky Point. Five assailants were killed by Mexico’s Federal Police during the attack on the resort area.

At the time, the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora said that U.S. citizens should “exercise caution when visiting Puerto Peñasco.”

After Mexican authorities assessed the crime scene, the serial numbers on at least one AK-47-styled rifle came back as one linked to the Fast and Furious program.

The ATF quickly put out a statement in an attempt to defuse the news:

ATF has accepted responsibility for the mistakes made in the Fast and Furious investigation and at the attorney general’s direction we have taken appropriate and decisive action to ensure that these errors will not be repeated. And we acknowledge that, regrettably, firearms related to the Fast and Furious investigation will likely continue to be recovered at future crime scenes.

Whether the ATF has “accepted responsibility” or not, Congress has continued to attempt to try and get to the bottom of the failed program despite repeated attempts by Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder to stonewall the investigation led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA).

In a December 31 statement, Senator Grassley said:

In Operation Fast and Furious, the Mexican drug cartels found an easy way to supplement their own illegal ways. Worse yet, the Obama administration has yet to publicly hold anyone accountable for this disastrous policy. Unfortunately, guns from Fast and Furious will be found in operations like this for years to come.