In a case that is prompting comparisons to the botched Operation Fast and Furious, police believe explosives found at a murder scene in Mexico may have come from an American bomb-maker whom the U.S. attorney in Arizona refused to prosecute.
According to an internal U.S. Department of Justice memo, a “Kingery grenade” was among the 10 explosives found at the scene of a shootout between police and drug cartels in Guadalajara on Oct. 10 in which three officers were killed.
The “Kingery grenade” refers to those manufactured by Jean Baptiste Kingery, a California resident who made grenades in Mexico from parts sourced in the U.S. He also converted AK-47s from semi- to fully-automatic weapons.
ATF agents arrested Kingery in 2010, but the assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona at the time, Emory Hurley, referred to the grenades as harmless toys and told the ATF the case “lacked jury appeal,” according to the ATF supervisor in charge, Pete Forcelli. Forcelli had handled the case until the U.S. attorney declined to prosecute.
Is this enforcement agency doing ANYTHING to keep us safer, or are they just a rogue firm designed to HARM people for the sake of busy work?
SAME Arizona ATF Office. SAME A.G.’s Office.
MUST be a Coincidence.
What does the BATFE do? They lose the paperwork that allows me to move my Short Barreled Shotgun from TN to NC, without which I would be a felon.
And they lose it twice.
Must have gotten mixed up with a shipment of grenades or something.
OMG, I hadn’t heard that. I’m so sorry! Hopefully it’ll all get sorted out soon enough.
Legitimate issues with the BATFE should be thrown in their face, but this time they seem to have done their part. They collared the guy; the DOJ refused to prosecute him, so they had to kick him free. This is probably more an example of general incompetence (or possibly two separate offices pursuing different agendas) than it is conspiracy.
All part of a larger systemic problem but not obviously deliberately orchestrated.