'Straw' buyers keep drug war blazing

On the night of December 14, 2010, Brian Terry, a member of an elite United States Border Patrol unit, was deployed with three other agents in Peck Canyon, a mountainous area frequented by drug and people smugglers north of Nogales, Arizona.

Spotting five armed men, the agents shouted "Policia!" Gunfire erupted and Terry was killed.

Four suspects were detained. This week three were released after pleading guilty to immigration violations.

A fourth suspect, wounded in the firefight, is still held on immigration charges.

The death of US agents is always newsworthy, but Terry's death raised uncomfortable questions.

Two AK-47 assault rifles were found at the crime scene. The guns are prized by drug cartels locked in a bloody war with each other and the Mexican Government, with almost 35,000 people slain since 2006. Both rifles were purchased in Arizona.

According to a letter sent to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives by Republican Senator Charles Grassley, the sale was known to ATF agents with Project Gunrunner, meant to curb arms trafficking to the cartels.

"Members of the Judiciary Committee have received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers, who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into Mexico.

According to the allegations, one of these individuals purchased three assault rifles with cash in Glendale, Arizona, on January 16, 2010.

Two of these rifles, says Grassley's letter, were allegedly used in the shootout that killed Terry.

Had the ATF dropped the ball with tragic consequences?

There are "serious concerns that the ATF may have become careless, if not negligent, in implementing the Gunrunner strategy," wrote Grassley.

The claims were apparently sparked by ATF agents unhappy leads were not followed up.

In a February 4 letter to Grassley, the Justice Department moved to quash criticism. Any allegation the ATF "sanctioned" or "otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico is false," said Ronald Weich, the Assistant Attorney General.

As the episode reverberated from the border to the Beltway, the Arizona Republic reported one of the two AK-47s recovered from Peck Canyon had allegedly come from the Lone Wolf Trading Company, a gun store in Glendale, outside Phoenix.

It was not confirmed the gun was part of Project Gunrunner.

But an indictment handed down last month in Phoenix states Jaime Avila jnr bought three AK-47s from Lone Wolf "on or about January 16, 2010," and allegedly lied "he was the actual purchaser."

A total of 34 individuals are accused of straw purchases and other offences in five separate indictments.

One, "US v. Avila," lists Avila and 19 others, and records over 580 AK-47 sales from Lone Wolf.

Some guns were recovered near the border.

The straw purchaser phenomenon has intensified as drug wars heat up, although there is dispute about how many guns come from the US. Some weapons originate in Mexico. Others, used in Latin American wars, flow north. Military weapons, such as hand grenades, rocket launchers and light machine guns, some from China, are traced to the illicit global small arms market.

The US Government Accountability Office says that in 2008 Mexican authorities seized 30,000 guns and submitted 7200 to the ATF, which traced 3480 to the US.

This is likely just part of the total number of arms smuggled south. This week the GAO said there were not enough US Border Patrol agents to stop the trade.

The Avila indictment says cartel "weapons of choice" include "semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols."

They include both the AR-15/M-16 and AK-47 type rifles, plus AK-47 type pistols, .9mm pistols, and .50 calibre sniper rifles, all available legally in the US.

Anyone who wants to buy a gun must prove state residency and be over 21. A state driver's licence suffices. Buyers must also fill out a 4473 form, providing a Social Security number and stating, among other things, that they are a US citizen, have not been indicted or convicted for a felony, do not use illegal drugs, are not mentally ill, and are buying the gun for their own use.

The dealer runs details past the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System and, if given the all-clear, records the sales information in a "bound book," available to ATF inspectors.

Once the paperwork is done and buyers have cleared the NICS test, they "can buy as many long guns as they want," says Justice Department press officer Robbie Sherwood in Phoenix.

Cartels hire straw buyers who have no criminal record. Many are "ordinary folk who got wrapped up in this thing at some point, friends of friends," says Sherwood.

No crime is committed until weapons are handed to someone else not mentioned on the 4473.

When enough guns have been gathered, they are smuggled over the border.

Sometimes dealers report suspicious long gun sales on a voluntary basis. But tips are often delayed and by then, says Sherwood, many guns "were in the wind."

"The dealer loses control over a gun when it leaves the store," says attorney Dick DeGuerin.

Once guns leave the store they vanish. Some resurface in classified ads or at gun shows. Private sales don't involve 4473s.

"That's when the secondary market kicks off," says Susan Ginsburg, of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, whose research into US weapons trafficking in the 1990s overturned assumptions that guns used in crimes had been stolen, and focused attention on straw purchasers.

"When the guns disappear without trace."

"And tracing guns manually - sifting through 4473s, then following up leads by phone or on foot - requires huge investigative resources."

The ATF, says Ginsburg, looks at "fast-time-to-crime," guns that reappear at crime scenes within three years of sale.

It is a daunting task, with about 2500 ATF agents to monitor 78,000 licensed US gun stores.

Many are clustered near the border. Houston has some 1500 stores.

DeGuerin represents Houston's Carter's Country, which he says is the "target" of an ATF inquiry. He says his client fed tips on "hinky sales" to the AFR, using "stall and call" tactics - delaying buyers on some pretext while sales staff contacted the ATF - even noting vehicle plates.

Tips are vital to the ATF, which besides being understaffed is hamstrung by legal loopholes. Gun dealers must report anyone who buys two or more handguns in five days to the ATF - the Saturday Night Special law. But they are not required to report sales of long guns, such as semi-automatic assault rifles, which became legal in 2006.

Then there's the politics. Guns are revered in Texas and states with a frontier past, while private ownership is fiercely defended in Washington by the powerful gun lobby.

The National Rifle Association's vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, vows to fight any new rules. Given Republican control of the US House of Representatives, Congress would likely veto them anyway.

Thus, a recent effort by the ATF to fast-track a new regulation, that would require US gun dealers to apply the Saturday Night Special law to long guns, went nowhere.

Suggestions that Gunrunner focuses on the small fish - the straw purchasers - because of political hostility to ATF efforts to fight trafficking, are denied by the Justice Department. It says the project seeks "to dismantle the entire trafficking organisation, not merely to arrest straw purchasers."

Despite the seizure of over 10,000 firearms, 1.1 million rounds of ammunition and hundreds of convictions since 2006, the illicit trade flourishes.

Given the gun lobby's vigilance against any Second Amendment infringement, straw purchasers will likely continue to run rings around the ATF as cartels with deep pockets fuel the demand for high-powered weaponry.

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78,000 Licensed gun stores in the United States

1500 Gun stores in Houston Texas - close to the US-Mexico border

35,000 Slain in Mexico's bloody drug wars since 2006