The U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona has been accused of trying to cover up a link between the murder of a Customs and Border Protection agent and a controversial anti-drug program that allowed guns to fall into the hands of cartels.

 

Shortly after the December 2010 killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the office of U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley determined that the weapons involved were part of “Fast and Furious,” an operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that allowed everything from handguns to semi-automatic rifles to reach Mexican drug criminals. But Hurley did not disclose the linkage between the murder and the much-criticized program, and in fact, tried to keep it under wraps, according to two Republicans, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Representative Darrell Issa of California.

 

Hurley since has been transferred out of the criminal division and into the civil section. The Terry case and two others related to the Fast and Furious program will now be prosecuted by California prosecutors rather than those in Arizona. Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, a Mexican national, has been charged with Terry’s murder.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

Prosecutors Stripped of Cases after ATF Head Reassigned (by Kevin Johnson, USA Today)

Cover-up in ATF Gunwalker Case? (by Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News)

ATF Email (CBS News)

ATF Program Let Hundreds of Guns go to Drug Cartels (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)