Mexico City. The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) obtained arrest warrants from a federal judge against seven people involved, including former federal officials, in the operation. Fast and Furious, which between 2006 and 2011 allowed the illegal introduction of more than two thousand firearms into Mexican territory.
Among those named are Luis Cárdenas Palomino, already imprisoned in Mexico for other crimes, and Genaro García Luna, who is incarcerated in the United States.
The arrest warrant was also issued against the drug trafficker Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera, also imprisoned and sentenced in the United States.
In these last two cases, the Mexican authorities will request their US counterparts to officially notify the detainees, and will initiate an extradition procedure to try them in Mexico.
Fast and Furious It was an operation proposed by the US Office of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), to allow the smuggling of weapons, which included a chip that supposedly would allow them to be traced. However, once in Mexico it was impossible to locate all the pieces and several of them were used to commit various crimes.
The FGR pointed out that “in accordance with the investigations carried out by the United States Department of Justice, the necessary information was obtained to establish said illegal traffic in firearms, which were used in various blood crimes in the country, from year from 2009 to recent dates. “
The agency added that the US authorities have already been in charge of investigating and defining the responsibilities of former public servants of that country in this case.
“In Mexico, and in accordance with an own investigation, and with the data acquired in the corresponding preliminary investigations, it was established that these weapons were not only illegally introduced into the country, but have also been used in various criminal acts, which have already been investigated and processed in Mexico, “added the FGR.
Of other former officials for whom arrest warrants were requested, it was only reported that they are people who are still at large, and therefore their names were not given, to prevent them from fleeing.
The lawsuit of the Mexican government in US courts against arms manufacturers, has put the operation Fast and Furious as an example of the ease with which complete arsenals can be acquired without problems in the neighboring country to the north to be used in our territory by organized crime groups.
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