Since finding out about Operation Fast and Furious, Arizona Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has been anything but amused. With no regard for local law enforcement, the Obama Justice Department supplied the most dangerous criminals in North America with high powered weapons, including .50-calibur sniper rifles and AK-47s, leading to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and at least 200 innocent Mexican citizens. Now with the Southern border still wide open, Babeu and his deputies will face the barrels of those guns as they do their job to combat Mexican drug cartels illegally operating in Arizona.
Today, Babeu's office confirmed two guns found during a massive drug smuggling bust against the Sinaloa Cartel in Pinal County, were provided through Operation Fast and Furious.
"I am outraged our Federal Government has armed one of the largest and most dangerous of the Mexican drug cartels with as many as 2,000 high powered weapons. This is the same cartel we have been investigating for the past fifteen months for various crimes including a murder in my County. We have arrested 76 suspects and seized 108 weapons. We have now have learned two of the weapons we seized are in fact linked to Operation Fast and Furious. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was only doing his job when he was viciously murdered by Mexican bandits with Fast and Furious weapons. Thankfully none of our members were murdered this time," Babeu tells Townhall.
I sat down with Sheriff Babeu in September when he warned of this very situation, noting that guns will be recovered at violent crime scenes for years to come.
“It’s not going to end, there are at least 1500 guns out there and we have no clue where they are,” Babeu said.
While Sheriff Babeu and his deputies are doing their best to fight these cartels with limited resources, the Obama Justice Department has been arming the enemy with weapons Babeu’s deputies don’t even have.
“Outrage and betrayal. This has never happened before in the history of our country. We may have given armaments and weapons to our allies who may have later become our enemy, but we’ve never given them directly to our enemy,” Babeu said when asked about his initial reaction to Operation Fast and Furious.
“These are the most violent criminals in North America and we facilitated and gave weapons, weapons that my deputies don’t even have, to these cartels,” he said. “It’s more than insane, it is horrific to think that our own government did this.”
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