But
those two
drug lords were secretly serving as informants for the FBI along the
Southwest
border, newly obtained internal emails show. Had Celis-Acosta simply
been held
when he was arrested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives
in May 2010, the investigation that led to the loss of hundreds of
illegal guns
and may have contributed to the death of a Border Patrol agent could
have been
closed early.
Documents
obtained
by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau show that as far
back as December 2009 — five months before Celis-Acosta was detained and
released at the border in a car carrying 74 live rounds of ammunition —
ATF and
DEA agents learned by chance that they were separately investigating the
same
man in the Arizona and Mexico border region.
ATF
agents
had placed a secret pole camera outside his Phoenix home to track his
movements, and separately the DEA was operating a "wire room" to
monitor live wiretap intercepts to follow him.
In
May 2010,
Celis-Acosta was briefly detained at the border in Lukeville, Ariz., and
then
released by Hope MacAllister, the chief ATF investigator on Fast and
Furious,
after he promised to cooperate with her.
The
ATF had
hoped he would lead them to two Mexican cartel members. But records show
that
after Celis-Acosta finally was arrested in February 2011, the ATF
learned to
its surprise that the two cartel members were secret FBI informants.
Rep.
Darrell
Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee,
and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) are investigating Fast and
Furious, which
allowed illegal gun purchases in Arizona in hopes of tracking the
weapons to
Mexican drug cartel leaders. In a confidential memo to Republican
committee
members, Issa and Grassley said the ATF should have known the cartel
members
were informants and immediately shut down Fast and Furious.
"This
means
the entire goal of Fast and Furious — to target these two individuals
and
bring them to justice — was a failure," they wrote. The "lack of
follow-through" by the various agencies, they said, typified "the
serious management failures that occurred throughout all levels during
Fast and
Furious."
James
Needles,
a top ATF official in Arizona, told congressional investigators last
year that it was very frustrating and a "major disappointment" to
learn too late about the informants.
ATF
officials
declined to comment about the investigations because they are
continuing.
But
Adrian P.
Fontes, a Phoenix attorney representing Celis-Acosta, who has pleaded
not
guilty, said he was concerned the federal agencies purposely did not
share
information.
"When
one
hand is not talking to the other, perhaps somebody is hiding
something," he said. "Was this intentional?"
Emails
and
other records show that once the ATF and DEA realized they were both
investigating Celis-Acosta, officials from both agencies met in December
2009
at the DEA field office in Phoenix.
It
is
unclear, however, whether MacAllister later told the DEA that she
released
Celis-Acosta in May 2010 and that he was headed into Mexico.
Her
boss,
David J. Voth, the ATF's group supervisor for Fast and Furious, told
committee
investigators that the ATF realized the Sinaloa cartel members were
"national security assets," or FBI informants, only after
Celis-Acosta was rearrested. He identified the informants as two
brothers, and
said, "We first learned when we went back and sorted out the facts."
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