Fast and Furious Whistleblower Blasts Mexico’s Lawsuit Against Gun Makers

Former Deputy Assistant ATF Director Pete Forcelli has been an outspoken voice for reform at his former agency, as well as being one of the first employees to blow the whistle on the Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal that send thousands of guns south of the border and into the hands of cartel members under the watchful eye of the ATF’s Phoenix field office. Forcelli’s also a friend of Bearing Arms (and me personally) who’s been a guest on Cam & Co on multiple occasions to discuss ATF abuses and the need for a new direction. 

In a new op-ed, Forcelli takes aim at Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S gun makers that seeks to blame them for the violent actions of the Mexican drug cartels, arguing that the litigation “fundamentally misplaced blame and represents a dangerous distraction from the actual sources of Mexico’s crisis.” 

The heights of absurdity in Mexico’s lawsuit include its citation of Lone Wolf Trading Co., a Phoenix-based gun shop it identifies as “the number-one dealer of firearms recovered in Mexico in 2010.” Mexico’s legal team conveniently omits the shocking truth behind those statistics.

The Lone Wolf Trading Co. was among the most cooperative gun dealers ATF agents worked with in Phoenix. For years, they diligently reported suspicious purchases and potential straw buyers, leading to hundreds of seizures of Mexico-bound firearms and numerous criminal prosecutions. Their vigilance helped prevent countless weapons from reaching the cartels.

That changed dramatically with “Operation Fast and Furious.” When ATF’s Phoenix VII group took over, these same dealer warnings about suspicious purchases were deliberately ignored. Contrary to standard protocol, agents instructed Lone Wolf to proceed with suspicious sales without interdiction. The operational theory was that gun recoveries at cartel crime scenes would strengthen their case.

When Lone Wolf’s operators began receiving traces from ATF’s National Tracing Center for guns recovered in Mexico, they and their attorneys demanded a meeting with ATF leadership and the Phoenix U.S. Attorney’s Office. Their request was reasonable: they wanted to stop selling to suspected straw purchasers. Incredibly, they were ordered to continue these sales to support the operation — despite growing evidence of mounting casualties in Mexico.

One straw purchaser acquired more than 800 firearms for cartels. Straw purchasers trafficked 2,200 firearms during this operation, with the majority flowing directly into Mexico. 

The Mexican government is effectively targeting the industry whose members — like Lone Wolf Trading Co. — actively tried to prevent weapons trafficking while ignoring the astonishing fact that U.S. federal agencies facilitated the flow of weapons across the border.

It’s not like the Mexican government or the gun control activists aiding its lawsuit are unaware of the details that Forcelli provided his readers. They know darn well that the Obama administration allowed thousands of guns to fall into the hands of cartel members, just as they know that thousands of firearms lawfully sold to the Mexican military and law enforcement have been illegally diverted to the cartels once they’ve been imported into the gun-controlled country. 

Mexico chooses to ignore those inconvenient facts to bolster their absurd claim that since U.S. gun makers must know that some portion of their products will be illegally obtained by cartel members and used in the commission of crime, they’re “aiding and abetting” the cartels and are a proximate cause of the mayhem they’ve unleashed on Mexican society. 

Holding gun manufacturers liable for criminal misuse of their products sets a disturbing precedent. By this logic, automobile manufacturers could be sued for drunk driving fatalities or pharmaceutical companies held responsible when their medications are illegally diverted and abused.

Mexico’s violence epidemic stems from a complex interplay of factors: economic inequality, limited opportunities in legitimate sectors, weak judicial institutions, and the enormous profits generated by America’s demand for illicit drugs.

Meaningful progress requires multi-faceted approaches: strengthening Mexico’s law enforcement and judicial capabilities, reducing corruption through institutional reforms, addressing economic factors driving cartel recruitment, and confronting demand-side issues in the U.S. drug market.

Truth is often stranger — and sometimes more appalling — than fiction. Mexico’s lawsuit represents a misguided application of blame and a perverse distortion of Mexico’s accountability for its domestic law enforcement issues.

Pete Forcelli’s a straight shooter, and he hit the bullseye with his diagnosis of Mexico’s sickness. Thankfully, based on the questions during the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in Mexico’s lawsuit earlier this month I think a majority of the justices are going to agree with Forcelli’s take and toss out the litigation. That won’t stop the cartel violence, of course, but it will at least place the responsibility for combatting it back where it belongs: on the shoulders of Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum.