'Project Gunrunner' Scandal Heats Up
In January 2011, scandal broke out over “Project Gunrunner,” a program of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agency (ATF). The intended goal of “Project Gunrunner” was to limit the flow of firearms into Mexico through close surveillance of undercover gun purchases. ATF agents encouraged gun shops to sell machinery to “straw buyers”—people who buy weapons in the US with the known intent of trafficking them into Mexico. The ATF was then supposed to trace these guns in order to gain intelligence, dangerously letting the weapons “walk” in hopes of making bigger arrests within the cartels themselves. Whistleblowers say that the tracing never happened. Ultimately, the ATF allowed more than 1,800 weapons to enter Mexico and fall into drug hands.
It was later discovered that ATF employee John Dodson blew the whistle on the problems with “Project Gunrunner.” At least 6 other ATF agents and executives have come forward exposing how the ATF encouraged the illegal sale of firearms to known criminals. In the wake of these mishaps, ATF has been accused of retaliating against fellow agent Vince Cefalu who came forward with information on ATF’s illegal operations in December 2010. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa sent a letter to the ATF that warned officials not to retaliate against whistleblowers. Yet two days later, Cefalu—an employee of ATF for 24 years—was served with termination papers. Agent Cefalu stated, “Simply put, we knowingly let hundreds of guns and dozens of identified bad guys go across the border.” However, Agent Cefalu’s dismissal is not the ATF’s first case of retaliation against whistleblowers. Earlier this year, another agent was accused of misconduct for talking with Senator Grassley’s (Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee) staffers after the scandal first broke.
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