Operation Fast and Furious

Fronteras Desk Senior Field Correspondent Michel Marizco has been covering Operation Fast and Furious -- the gunwalking scandal in Southern Arizona -- since the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010. Here is an overview of the work done by Marizco and other Fronteras Desk reporters

On a cold December night in 2010, a Border Patrol agent was shot and killed along the U.S.-Mexican border in southern Arizona. His murder exposed a government operation known as Fast and Furious that’s become a major scandal.
August 10, 2012

The murder of Agent Brian Terry

A manhunt is underway Wednesday for a suspect who fatally shot a Border Patrol agent near Nogales, Arizona.
December 15, 2010

Hundreds of Border Patrol agents filled part of the baseball stadium in a sea of olive green. A line of riflemen stood at attention as the American flag and the agency's own flag fluttered in the cool morning air.
January 22, 2011

Federal investigators have ruled out friendly fire in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent outside of Nogales.
February 16, 2011

Federal judges have the power to seal criminal cases if there is still an ongoing investigation. Authorities did not offer an explanation for denying the public access to the case.
November 15, 2011

Survivors also filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the owners of the gun shop that allegedly sold the weapon that killed Agent Brian Terry. The claim is a necessary step before filing a lawsuit against the government.
February 01, 2012

The FBI announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrests of four men wanted in the 2010 murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
July 09, 2012

Somewhere in a FBI evidence room is a single bullet, identified as Q6. It's the bullet used to kill Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
July 16, 2012

Mexican federal police captured one of the four fugitives wanted for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
September 10, 2012

New documents recently gathered by the Fronteras Desk give some new insight into what’s now become a nearly two year-long hunt for the killers of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
September 21, 2012

Congressional Hearings

Agents from the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms testified they tried to stop the gun walking program.
June 17, 2011

ATF leaders appeared before Congress Tuesday morning during a hearing into Operation Fast and Furious. A report details how dozens of weapons were found linked to crimes in Mexico. The leaders avoided hard questions as to who was ultimately is responsible for the scandal.
July 27, 2011

While admitting allowing high-powered weapons to enter Mexico was a mistake, Attorney General Eric Holder refused to resign and asked Congress to help his agency by enacting new gun regulations.
December 09, 2011

The long-awaited Inspector General report on the gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious is expected to be issued Wednesday.
September 19, 2012

The DOJ watchdog's report placed much of the blame for the botched gun walking operation on Phoenix-based personnel with ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
September 20, 2012

Government Involvement

The ATF is accused of running an operation it called "Fast and Furious" that allowed cartel gun buyers to purchase weapons and take them unhindered into Mexico.
June 23, 2011

Nearly two-thirds of the guns are believed to be in Mexico and at least one weapon has been connected to the death of a border patrol agent.
August 30, 2011

"Operation Wide Receiver" used some of the same tactics as the infamous "Operation Fast and Furious": Buyers purchased weapons in the U.S. and delivered them to Mexico, according to court records. Only nine people have been charged; it is unknown how many have been hurt.
October 26, 2011

An April 2010 email states: “ATF let a bunch of guns walk in effort to get upstream conspirators but only got straws and didn’t recover many guns.”
November 01, 2011
Slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Sen. Chuck Grassley's office released the correspondence about the ATF led Operations Fast & Furious and Wide Receiver. Some of the emails suggest the Department of Justice wanted to minimize the amount of information about the gun walking programs that would be made public.
December 06, 2011

DEA wiretaps provided enough evidence to arrest gun buyers as early as 2009, but the ATF wanted to build their own case instead of sharing the arrests with the DEA, according to a Congressional report.
February 06, 2012

Gunwalking suspect pleads guilty to weapons charges, but none involving the murder of Border Patrol agent.
April 05, 2012

The ATF agent who blew the whistle on the agency's flawed gunwalking program, Operation Fast and Furious, is now suing Time, Inc., the media giant that publishes Fortune Magazine.
November 02, 2012

The report shows agents in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tried to keep rival agents in Homeland Security from discovering they were letting guns into Mexico.
March 26, 2013