Obama/Holder ATF In Another Gun Running Scheme

[Pat McGarrity]

Here is yet another dangerous scheme to manufacture anti-gun propaganda by Obama and Holder using the ATF. So far, the buck stops nowhere...


Second Gun-Running Operation in Fla. Examined

By Jon E. Dougherty at 15 Jul 13:38

(Newsroom America) -- A second gun-running operation in Florida that may have supplied firearms to Central America has come under scrutiny by several lawmakers following revelations about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Operation Fast and Furious."

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., inquired about "Operation Castaway," a program other lawmakers are also beginning to examine, Fox News reported.

ATF has claimed the program is above board, not a covert operation like Fast and Furious, in which the agency tried unsuccessfully to track weapons to drug gangs in Mexico, weapons the agency allowed to "walk" across the border.

The Justice Department said Castaway was an anti-gun trafficking operation ran out of Florida by an ATF division, providing a host of convictions for suspects the agency said were providing weapons used in violent crimes around the world, the report said. In his letter, Bilirakis questioned whether Castaway was similar in any way to Fast and Furious.

Bilirakas said he was concerned about reports that said the operations "may not have been limited to weapons trafficking to Mexico." He also asked both Holder and Melson if "similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF's Tampa Field Division" and a Justice Department office, via the Castaway operation, Fox News said.

The report said ATF investigators were examining the activities of Hugh Crumpler III, a Florida gun dealer. One ATF official who spoke to Fox News on condition of anonymity said Castaway did not appear to be similar to Fast and Furious.

The report said the agency began looking into Crumpler's activities when investigators realized he might be engaged in criminal gun trafficking. At one point Crumpler sold weapons to an undercover ATF agent without a license and said he knew some of his guns were making their way to Honduras.

Creighton Welch, a spokesman for Bilirakas, told the Fox News his boss had seen reports in local newspapers about the operation and had received phone calls about it from constituents.

"We're placing a lot of firearms in potentially the wrong hands," he said. "There are a lot of unanswered questions for a potentially very dangerous situation."

© 2010 Newsroom America.