Project Gunrunner
Project Gunrunner is a program initiated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in 2006, aimed at combating the flow of firearms from the United States to Mexican drug cartels. This initiative arose in response to escalating violence associated with drug trafficking on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, as Mexican gangs increasingly became major players in arms trafficking. The project focused on tracing firearms sold by American dealers that were later found in the possession of drug traffickers and included intelligence-gathering efforts to identify trafficking organizations across the U.S.
Despite its intentions, Project Gunrunner faced significant criticism, particularly following the 2010 death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed with a weapon that had been allowed to cross the border as part of the operation. Critics argued that the program prioritized tracing weapons over seizing them, leading to tragic consequences, including the sale of firearms to known cartel members. Furthermore, the program was scrutinized for its failure to effectively collaborate with Mexican authorities and target higher-level trafficking figures.
As the violence from drug cartels persisted, questions regarding the effectiveness of Project Gunrunner grew, particularly in light of subsequent operations like "Fast and Furious," which further exacerbated concerns about gunwalking practices. The legacy of Project Gunrunner continues to influence discussions about arms trafficking and the ongoing challenges faced by law enforcement in addressing drug-related violence.
Project Gunrunner
Summary: In 2006, the United States government launched Project Gunrunner, an operation designed to stem the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexican drug cartels. This was executed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)a law enforcement division of the Treasury Department transferred to the Justice Department as part of the Homeland Security reorganization brought on by the war on terrorism. Project Gunrunner focused on tracing guns that were sold by American dealers and ended up in the hands of Mexican drug dealers. Such sales were tracked to many regions of the United States, not just the border statesCalifornia, Arizona, New Mexico, Texaswhere drug-related violence seemed most acute. In 2011, Congressional critics of ATF objected that the agency had placed too much emphasis on tracing weapons instead of seizing them, leading in one instance to the death of a US Border Patrolman who was shot with a gun traced by Project Gunrunner. On the other hand, the inspector general of the Justice Department in November 2010 criticized the program for focusing on apprehending individuals buying guns while acting as "straw men" for cartels and not enough effort on the major figures in Mexican crime organizations. Project Gunrunner is most recognized, however, for coming under fire for the controversial decision of members of the ATF to not stop the sale of guns knowingly going into the hands of members but instead allow the sales to expose supply chains, effectively sanctioning the sale of weapons to cartel members.
Overview
Project Gunrunner was a program initiated in 2006 by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)a division of the Justice Department since 2003to control the flow of weapons and ammunition from the United States into the hands of Mexican drug traffickers. The campaign reflected growing violence on both sides of the US-Mexican border.
According to ATF, Mexican drug cartels had become the major players in gun trafficking in the southwestern United States. Project Gunrunner was developed as part of the agency's strategy dealing with the US southern border with Mexico, at a time when the drug cartels were fighting both each other and the Mexican government. At issue was, essentially, a turf war between the three entities over regional narcotics trafficking. The ATF said Project Gunrunner investigations identified "firearms trafficking organizations in all parts of the United States, from Minnesota to Florida, to all our border states."
In its first four years of operation, Project Gunrunner identified more than 2,500 suspects involved in 1,100 separate cases for prosecution, which resulted in the seizure of more than 10,000 weapons and almost a million rounds of ammunition that were bound for Mexico. Weapons seized by ATF ranged from pistols to combat assault rifles.
ATF agents involved in Project Gunrunner are stationed on both sides of the border and in Mexico City.
In one case brought in March 2011, the mayor and other officials of Columbus, New Mexico were accused of buying weapons in their role as municipal officials to sell the weapons to drug dealers in Mexico.
A major component of Project Gunrunner was intelligence gathering, as opposed to the arrest of traffickers and/or seizure of weapons. In particular, the project utilized a system called "eTrace" that enabled law enforcement officials, both Mexican and American, to submit and track, in real-time, requests to trace specific weapons. Using this system, ATF reported that in the fiscal year 2008, "Mexico submitted more than 7,500 recovered guns for tracing, most of which were traced to sources in Texas, California and Arizona."
Project Gunrunner resulted in formal indictments linked to weapons trafficking on both sides of the border under laws that barred buyers of weapons to declare their purchase was for their own use when they were acting as an agent for someone else. According to the ATF, using such "straw purchasers" was a common tactic of drug cartels.
Controversy and Criticism
In 2011, the ATF's conduct of Project Gunrunner became the topic of criticism after the death of a US Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, in December 2010, about ten miles north of the US-Mexico border. Critics of ATF said that as part of its investigative technique under Project Gunrunner, the ATF customarily urged gun dealers to go ahead with arms deals they suspected to be linked to Mexican drug dealers to trace the weapons to their eventual intended recipients. In the case of Brian Terry's death, agents found at the scene of the shooting two semi-automatic rifles that had been sold by a store in Phoenix known to be cooperating with Project Gunrunner. Congressional critics of the program, notably Senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, questioned whether ATF should have concentrated on removing guns from circulation rather than allowing sales to proceed. The technique became even more controversial with revelations that senior managers of the ATF had overruled objections by some ATF agents to letting the sale of the guns used to kill Terry proceed and had later carried out career retaliation against those agents. Critics alleged that the ATF had allowed as many as 3,000 weapons to be sold and transferred to Mexico to "boost the statistics" of the program, specifically the number of firearms seized in Mexico with help from the United States.
Earlier, in November 2010, the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, in a review of how ATF had implemented Project Gunrunner, criticized the agency for failing to "systematically and consistently exchange intelligence with its Mexican and some US partner agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection." The inspector general's report also criticized management of Project Gunrunner for focusing on lower-level operators instead of "higher-level traffickers, smugglers, and the ultimate recipients of the trafficked guns." One result was that 68 percent of cases brought by Project Gunner involved single defendants. The report said that "some ATF managers discouraged field personnel from conducting the types of complex conspiracy investigations that target higher-level members of trafficking rings."
The review also concluded that ATF had failed to extend Project Gunrunner into Mexico and that Mexican officials did not regard it as a useful tool in their domestic campaign against drug traffickers.
Background and Context
Project Gunrunner was undertaken in response to a rising tide of violence in Mexico associated with competing gangs of drug traffickers. This pattern was an unforeseen by-product of the successful American campaign during the 1990s against major Colombian drug cartels. Mexico then became the major transit point for drugs destined for the United States. Armed confrontations between drug gangs in Mexico and the government caused American diplomats to speculate that control over parts of Mexico resided in the gangs. The drugs sold by Mexican gangs included cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine.
Purchases of arms by the traffickers helped make Mexican drug trafficking especially violent. According to the FBI, Mexican gangs established "cells" inside the United States, leading to violence on both sides of the US-Mexican border.
In December 2006, the Mexican government launched an intense but bloody campaign against gangs of drug traffickers. Project Gunrunner was part of that campaign but carried out by the United States.
In August 2010, the Mexican government estimated the death toll from drug violence since 2006 to be 28,000 - mostly from conflicts among the gangs themselves. In 2010, there were several reports of heads of some Mexican drug gangs being killed as violence associated with the drug trade continued unabated. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, violence, kidnappings, and criminal activity related to drug and gang violence in Mexico and the US border areas resulted in the death of tens of thousands of people each year, so the impact of programs such as Project Gunrunner remained questionable and the questions brought up by the program's controversies appeared to hold some validity. Cartels continued to consolidate their powers and expand their territories using new technologies such as drones. Violence committed against Mexican and US citizens has not abated, bringing into question the effectiveness of programs like Project Gunrunner.
In 2009, the ATF launched a campaign under Project Gunrunner that would, again, fall under close scrutiny. Under Operation “Fast and Furious,” the ATF allowed 2,000 weapons to gunwalk into Mexico. The weapons, nonetheless, were reportedly not adequately tracked and entered into criminal circulation. “Fast and Furious” as well as other similar type of operations under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner led to scandals for both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidential administrations. In 2012, the family of slain agent Brian Terry issued a lawsuit against seven employees in the federal government for its conduct of Project Gunrunner. In 2019, a US District judge dismissed this lawsuit. Despite having won convictions against a number of the assailants who killed Agent Terry, in August 2024, the conviction against Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes was overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court deemed Osorio-Arellanes' constitutional rights of due process was violated.
Bibliography
Attkisson, Sharyl. "A Primer on the “Fast and Furious” Scandal." CBS News, 12 Feb. 2013, www.cbsnews.com/news/a-primer-on-the-fast-and-furious-scandal. Accessed 12 Feb. 2013.
"Criminal Violence in Mexico Global Conflict Tracker." Council on Foreign Relations, 9 Aug. 2023, www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/criminal-violence-mexico. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.
Hatchett, Ford. "Conviction Overturned in 2010 Arizona Killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry." ABC 15, 12 Aug. 2024, www.abc15.com/news/state/conviction-overturned-in-2010-arizona-killing-of-border-patrol-agent-brian-terry. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.
Hesterman, Jennifer L. "The Mexican Drug War Spills Over United States Border." Counter Terrorist, vol 2, no. 3, June-July 2009.
"Mexican Drug Cartels: Two Wars and a Look Southward." Stratfor Analysis, 21 Dec. 2009, worldview.stratfor.com/article/mexican-drug-cartels-two-wars-and-look-southward. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.
"Review of ATF's Project Gunrunner." Justice Department Inspector General, Nov. 2010, oig.justice.gov/reports/review-atfs-project-gunrunner. 26 Sept. 2024.
Mares, David R. "US Drug Policy and Mexican Civil-Military Relations: A Challenge for the Mutually Desirable Democratization Process." Crime, Law & Social Change. vol. 40, no. 1 ,July 2003.