Sierra Vista plays key role in new border gunrunning crackdown

SIERRA VISTA Herald/Review ^ | Derek Jordan

[SandRat]

SIERRA VISTA — The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is stepping up its effort to stop the flow of illegal guns flowing into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels. The agency is setting up specialized teams along known trafficking hubs and routes, including Sierra Vista.

Project Gunrunner will establish teams in seven U.S. cities: Atlanta, Dallas, Brownsville, Texas, Las Vegas, Miami, Oklahoma City and Sierra Vista.

The move is a follow-up to the ATF’s Gun Runner Impact Team (GRIT) initiative, which saw a 100-day deployment of resources to the Phoenix Field Division, according to the agency.

Officials said the GRIT initiative resulted in “174 firearms trafficking-related criminal investigations” and the seizure of “approximately 1,300 illegally trafficked firearms and 71,000 rounds of ammunition, along with drugs and currency.”

Deputy Director Kenneth E. Melson said, “Lives are being lost to violent crime every day on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border,” Melson said. “Through Project Gunrunner and its GRIT initiative, ATF is shutting down the supply routes of firearms traffickers along the border and further inland.”

Nearly 100 defendants have been arrested, charged, convicted or sentenced since June 2010 on gun-related charges thanks to the GRIT initiative, said Dennis K. Burke, U.S. attorney for Arizona. The defendants included violent felons, as well as drug and weapons traffickers.

The cases involved more than 370 guns, including AK-47-style rifles, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition smuggled into or destined for Mexico, the statement reads.

“We are fighting on a crucial front here today to reduce violence in our own communities, and to disrupt and dismantle the southbound supply of weapons to the cartels,” Burke said.

“We will not be a gun locker for the cartels, who have made murder and mayhem their modus operandi. We will not tolerate violent criminals and others who illegally possess, purchase or sell firearms.”

[SandRat]

LEARN MORE

For more information on ATF and Project Gunrunner, please go to the ATF website, www.atf.gov.

[dartuser]

Fort Hoochie-koochie ping ...

[Gilbo_3]

Nearly 100 defendants have been arrested, charged, convicted or sentenced since June 2010 on gun-related charges thanks to the GRIT initiative

I smell BS here...a fed trial in under 3 months ???

[FlyingEagle]

Texas is a city?

These beltway boobs do not have a clue. It is not guns coming up here from Mexico, its criminals with dope.

Gong on and emergency business trip to Texas is not going to stop Mexicans from getting guns.

By the way the link is dead.

[SandRat]

Yep and the www.atf.gov link when you can find it just takes you back to what I posted.

[fifedom]

"The defendants included violent felons, as well as drug and weapons traffickers."

Last I heard, drugs were not being smuggled from the US into Mexico. These must be guns and ammo carried by drug smugglers coming into the US.

So where did they get them? Mostly likely from deserters from the Mexican military who took their weapons (and others) with them when they left or corrupt officials in the Mexican military and government.