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From Los Angeles Times

Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants

Probe reveals that the U.S. agency running the 'Fast and Furious' anti-gun-trafficking operation didn't know about the alleged FBI informants. Congressional investigators are looking into the matter.

by Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

July 17, 2011

Reporting from Washington

Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.

The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them.

The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun smuggling networks. The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico.

The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent.

In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.

"We have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious," wrote Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two have been the leading congressional critics of the program.

"At least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring," they wrote.

The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.

"Operation Fast and Furious was conceived to get some of the bigger fish down there," said one official close to the congressional investigation, who asked not to be identified because the probe is ongoing. "Then it turned out that some of the ones they were zeroing in on actually, mostly likely were paid informants."

The official said at least half a dozen cartel figures were being paid by one U.S. law enforcement agency while they were being targeted by another.

"We are learning more about them, and there are six so far that we know about. It's multiples, for sure," the official said.

The official declined to identify the six, but said the individual cited in the letter to the FBI operated along the Texas border with Mexico.

"This guy could die if it got out who he is," the official said. "He'd be killed."

The FBI and DEA referred queries Saturday to the Department of Justice. Officials there said they cannot talk about paid informants, but are attempting to answer the questions from Issa and Grassley.

They noted that they already have provided thousands of pages of documents to Congress, and have answered questions in sworn depositions and open hearings.

"We have been cooperating, and we will continue to cooperate," said an Obama administration official. "We want to learn as much as we can about Fast and Furious, just as they do."

The ATF ran the Fast and Furious operation out of its field office in Phoenix until early this year. The idea was to monitor illegal purchases in federally licensed U.S. gun shops, but allow the illicit buyers to walk away with the weapons, giving ATF agents the opportunity to learn how the guns are smuggled across the border.

But many of their gun tracing efforts failed, and hundreds of firearms purchased under the program were used to commit crimes in Mexico.

In addition, two AK-47s purchased during the operation were found at the scene last December where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was shot to death near Tucson, allegedly by a Sinaloa cartel member.

A second U.S. immigration agent, Jaime Zapata, was slain in a cartel ambush in February in Mexico, and investigators now are trying to determine whether Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill him as well.

In the letter to Mueller, the senators asked if Zapata was armed when he was killed and "if not, why not?" They also asked if his vehicle was bulletproof, and if so, "how was he killed inside of the vehicle?"

They also asked how many cartel members were paid, if any of the informants had been deported from the United States, and if FBI personnel in Arizona knew of the informants.

The Republican leaders asked to see all "emails, documents, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes" from and to FBI and DEA field supervisors and agents in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and Yuma in Arizona, and in El Paso, Texas.

They are seeking the same material from the FBI case agent investigating Terry's death.

Zapata's family also is seeking answers. Relatives of the slain immigration agent sent a letter June 14 to the U.S. attorney's office in South Texas, the top FBI official in San Antonio, and several U.S. immigration officials, "requesting information about the specific circumstances of Jaime Zapata's death."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cartel-guns-20110717,0,6972222.story

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Gun control at the border

The Obama administration has taken a a small but significant step that could help federal authorities keep weapons sold in the U.S. out of the hands of Mexican gangs and drug cartels.

July 17, 2011

The Obama administration took a concrete step toward curbing the flow of semiautomatic weapons to Mexico last week when it adopted a new regulation mandating the reporting of multiple sales of long guns to federal authorities.

Under the regulation, some 8,500 licensed gun shops in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas will be required to inform the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when a customer buys more than one semiautomatic that is .22 caliber or greater within a five-day period.

The regulation is a small but significant tool that could help federal authorities keep weapons sold in the United States out of the hands of Mexican gangs and drug cartels. Rather than tracing an AK-47 after it has been recovered from a crime scene, ATF agents may be able to intervene before the weapon is smuggled across the border.

The National Rifle Assn. is, not surprisingly, denouncing the modest rule as encroaching on Americans' 2nd Amendment rights; in fact, it is already threatening to sue the federal government, contending that only Congress can impose such rules. And some Republicans have noted that the decision to impose what they consider unnecessary reporting standards on Americans comes in the wake of a bungled ATF operation called Fast and Furious. That operation was designed to track illegal straw purchases of guns destined for Mexico, but the agency lost track of the guns and some of them ended up at crime scenes, including at the site of the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year.

The ATF should be required to explain how Fast and Furious was botched. But that failure shouldn't be used to derail a perfectly sensible plan that is, if anything, too modest. The new rule doesn't impinge on anyone's right to own a gun. It doesn't even prohibit individuals from making multiple purchases. It simply requires that licensed gun dealers report such sales. Dealers are already subject to the same reporting requirement for multiple handgun sales, and in states such as California, a customer can buy only one handgun a month.

Military-style weapons are fueling the violence in Mexico, where nearly 40,000 people have died in the last four years. The new rule won't stop the bloodletting. It will, however, provide agents in this country with tips that could help rein in the illegal movement of weapons and save lives on both sides of the border.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-atf-20110717,0,3585074,print.story

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Police arrest man for making threats against Sen. Barbara Boxer

San Rafael police arrested a 47-year-old man Saturday morning for allegedly threatening Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Kevin Joseph O'Connell of San Rafael was booked on one count of making criminal threats against Boxer and is being held in Marin County jail on $500,000 bail, according to police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher.

Police and the FBI have been investigating death threats left after-hours on Boxer's voicemail during the week of July 10. They offered no details about the threats or how they had been traced to O'Connell.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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FBI probes slaying at VA campus

The body of Jose Luis Plascencia, 56, was found by a groundskeeper June 30. Authorities say he may have died a week earlier. Veterans advocates say the VA downplays incidents on the campus.

by Richard Winton and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times

July 17, 2011

For a week, the patient's body lay undiscovered at the sprawling West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus.

Then, just before noon on June 30, a groundskeeper found the decomposing remains of Jose Luis Plascencia while trimming foliage near Jackie Robinson Stadium, officials said.

Initially, investigators did not consider the grisly discovery to be foul play. The body was taken to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

There, medical examiners discovered something the investigators had apparently overlooked: a "sharp force injury to the neck." The coroner ruled the 56-year-old's death a homicide. "His neck had been cut," said Ed Winter of the coroner's office.

Plascencia's death marks the first homicide at the 400-acre VA facility in more than two decades, and comes at a time when VA officials are encountering heavy criticism over their stewardship of the campus. Now, the FBI has been called in to handle the case because the property falls under federal jurisdiction.

According to authorities, Plascencia was undergoing unspecified medical treatment at the facility at the time of his death. VA officials would not say what branch of the military he served in. According to court records and prosecutors, Plascencia had a criminal record that stretched back two decades and included arrests for minor drug possession and sales. In January 2009 he was given a two-year prison sentence for burglarizing a Palos Verdes home in September 2008, according to prosecutors.

The FBI has released few details in the matter.

"We have an open investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Plascencia's death, and so it wouldn't be appropriate to provide specifics," said Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman. "We will share our findings with the coroner, of course, and so I would defer to the coroner's office with regard to their assessment." Eimiller said investigators believe Plascencia's body had been there seven days.

The West Los Angeles VA facility has its own police force with about 55 officers, who are much more accustomed to responding to patient suicides. (One week after Plascencia's body was found, 48-year-old Chris Serrato was found dead at Exodus House, a facility that helps veterans with a variety of issues, including addiction. Authorities are awaiting toxicology test results.

Though homicides there are rare, investigators have found them difficult to solve.

The 1989 beating death of Donald P. Wegner, a facility electrician, remains a mystery. And, in this most recent case, investigators overlooked a knife that was left in the vicinity of Plascencia's body, according to a police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The weapon was recovered after the coroner's office deemed the matter a homicide and authorities returned to the scene, the source said.

Veterans activists say VA officials have made an effort to downplay incidents on the grounds and question why the body was not found sooner. "It's outrageous. They didn't find this guy for a week or more," said Robert Rosebrock, 68, who has led a group of military veterans in weekly protests of what they say is the VA's commercialization of the Wilshire Boulevard medical center's grounds.

The campus is not used by veterans alone. Many other groups pay to use the VA's grounds for various events. Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against facility managers, alleging that they were not doing enough to help homeless veterans and were using the grounds for purposes other than what it was intended for. The suit alleged that a third of the facility was being leased to a car rental company, a private school, a hotel laundry service and other groups with no connection to veterans.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-va-homicide-20110717,0,1398234,print.story

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California criminal database poorly maintained

The information tells police and potential employers of a person's past offenses, but nearly half the arrest records don't say if a conviction ensued. State workers chase paper records trying to fill gaps.

by Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

July 17, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento

The criminal records system California relies on to stop child abusers from working at schools and violent felons from buying guns is so poorly maintained that it routinely fails to alert officials to a subject's full criminal history.

The computerized log exists to provide an instant snapshot of a criminal past, informing police, regulators and potential employers of offenses such as murder, rape and drug dealing in a person's background. But nearly half of the arrest records in the database don't say whether the person in question was convicted.

Information from millions of records buried at courts and law enforcement agencies has never been entered in the system. So a small army of state employees must spend precious time — and millions of dollars each year — chasing paper records to fill in the gaps.

The resulting delays often make it impossible for a police officer to learn immediately whether a driver he or she has pulled over is a convicted felon, or let a gun-shop owner know if it's safe to hand over a weapon.

"There are obviously serious public safety implications if that database is incomplete," said Dennis Henigan, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a national gun-control group. "Every record missing from the system could be someone who is too dangerous to buy a gun."

California has a shoddy system for collecting case results from 58 county courts and hundreds of local prosecutors and police agencies, said Travis LeBlanc, a special assistant attorney general who oversees technology operations in the state Department of Justice.

The final outcome —- guilty, not guilty, case dismissed — is missing for about 7.7 million of the 16.4 million arrest records entered into state computers over the last decade, according to LeBlanc. More than 3 million of those are felony arrests.

Last month, California's inspector general estimated that 450 inmates who had completed their sentences but were still "a high risk for violence" had been released without supervision from parole agents. In some of those cases, prison officials relying on the faulty database didn't know the inmates had previous convictions and were supposed to be strictly supervised.

The data hole persists despite more than $35 million in federal grants the state Justice Department has received since 1995 to help plug it, according to department records. And a project to modernize court computers that began in 2001 is still not finished, even as its cost has ballooned from $260 million to as much as $1.9 billion, according to a state audit earlier this year.

"This is completely unacceptable," said state Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles), a longtime critic of the state's underperforming computer contracts. "This is about public safety here. There's no excuse."

In an interview last week, state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said she had spoken with Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye about the longstanding problem with the crime data. The two — who have been in their positions for less than a year — are looking for ways to bring the computer system into the "21st century," Harris said.

The information missing from the state Justice Department's Automated Criminal History System usually takes two to three weeks to obtain but can take even longer, officials said. And the problem doesn't affect only background checks done in California. The state's data are also used by the FBI in criminal checks for gun stores, employers and licensing authorities across the country.

Although California has a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases, and officials say they can stall longer if they still don't have answers, most states have a three-day waiting period. In those states, if a background check isn't complete by the end of the third day, the buyer can legally purchase a gun.

Some large retailers, such as Wal-Mart, wait until they get a final answer before selling a weapon, said Steve Fischer, spokesman for the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

"But smaller mom-and-pops, they need that revenue, so they transfer the guns" as soon as the three days pass, Fischer said. If a conviction is discovered after that, the FBI turns the information over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and "they decide whether to retrieve the gun."

Operations to confiscate guns from people who should not have them are time-consuming, potentially dangerous and rarely a complete success, authorities acknowledge.

Last month California launched its own effort to round up 1,200 firearms from people whose records were clean when they bought the guns but who had since been judged mentally ill or had restraining orders issued against them. Although the roundup was hailed as a victory, officials acknowledge that they know of at least 34,000 guns — 1,600 of them military-style assault weapons — still in the hands of people prohibited from owning them.

Harris said in a statement that her department and local law enforcers don't have the money or manpower to collect them all.

The information delays vex the FBI as it performs background checks on millions of people applying for jobs in public safety or for positions in which they would be responsible for children, the elderly or sensitive financial information, Fischer said.

When conviction information turns up after a job has been filled, it's up to local authorities to decide what to do with it.

"If you're looking at a schoolteacher and they have a 15-year-old DUI, you might overlook that…. If it's a sexual crime, they may be more likely to pursue it," Fischer said.

A record is created in the California database any time someone is arrested and his or her fingerprints are taken. The disposition of the case, which may not be decided for months or years, is supposed to be reported to the Justice Department by the county court, district attorney or local police department.

Some agencies report dispositions electronically. Others send records in hard copy or even by hand-written note, LeBlanc said, causing long delays in getting the information into the computers. Some local agencies never report the outcome of a case — leaving what police call "naked" arrest records.

The state spends millions of dollars a year on labor as it tries to fill in the blanks.

"We have 60 full-time people who identify naked arrests and then seek to fix those histories," LeBlanc said. The employees call courts, send letters to prosecutors and query police departments to find the missing pieces.

Local law enforcement agencies are forced to do the same kind of leg work, and "you're not going to get answers right away," said Capt. Pat McPherson, an investigator for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. "It takes a long time."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crime-data-20110717,0,5317715,print.story

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