You Never Know Where Someone's Allegedly Assembling Guns to Smuggle Into Mexico

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Jul. 22 2011 at 8:35 AM

Categories: Crime

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Looking through a stack of federal cases this morning I espied something odd, a file titled USA v. ... well, let's just say an address all of four blocks from my Northwest Dallas house, and a house I drive by at least once a day. A foreclosure, perhaps? A tax issue? Something perfectly benign? No, not really: In the affidavit and application for a search warrant filed last week and unsealed yesterday, an ATF agent says the owner of the house has spent the better part of the past year buying enough AR-15 and 7.62 lower receivers and parts kits needed to assemble a large arsenal. And, of course, the owner of the house doesn't have a license to deal.

According to the agent, ATF investigators were looking at the acquisition and disposition records at a Farmers Branch firearms dealer. The investigators saw that between October of last year and March of this year, one guy had bought through the dealer 15 AR-15 receivers and another 30 7.62-caliber receivers, not to mention all the other pieces needed to put those puzzles together. The owner asked the dude: Why all the orders? The buyer insisted he "was building rifles for target shooting and for his personal collection." Except ...

The ATF agent's affidavit says he learned that in January, another man was stopped by Hidalgo police -- right there on the border -- attempting to smuggle 15 guns into Mexico. Serial numbers on 12 of the guns had been completely obliterated, but three proved traceable -- two, back to the guy buying all the parts and tools.

At which point the ATF agent says he ran the home owner's employment records, which proved nonexistent. "Yet he is able to pay for his residence and for all the gun receivers and kits he is ordering," writes the agent -- including, on May 31, 20 more AK-74 receivers, which he ordered through the same dealer, who this time called ATF agents with the heads-up. And orders kept piling up: four receivers here, 20 there and so on, with a PS90 added to the pile.

At some point, the affidavit says, the owner of the store in Farmers Branch told the buyer to be careful, because the FBI's arresting people at gun shows for selling their own weapons and, besides, selling your personal guns is fine and all, but if you're doing it as a business, well, that's illegal. To which the guy allegedly assembling and selling all those guns said: "It was easier in the '80s."

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Where do you go online to look up unsealed affidavit and application for a search warrant?
I think, in a rather inarticulate way, he's talking about the ATF "Fast & Furious" operation that involved selling guns to individuals suspected of smuggling the guns into Mexico. One of the guns from the operation was used to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Maria Full of Grace...er...Maria Full of Guns: Suburban Edition!
Hate to point this out but Operation Fast and Furious or Gun Runner whatever is now on the carpet of the Oval Office, Hillery Clinton's State Department couch, Eric Holder's waste basket and Rahm Emmanuel's bidette. I live on the border and the carnage is surreal, the savegry is up to African standards. The more carnage, the better shot at gun control and the ultimate voiding of the 2nd. Amendment. JimS has the right idea, a handy scatter gun is a better defense than a pissed off Union Cop.
The black helicopters are coming for you, man
"I doubt that he did not know that the weapons he was building were going to people who were not legally allowed to have them" Right and Im sure that was built into the price otherwise the guy "illegal guy" couldve just paid market value at a legal dealer. How about the money laundering and tax evasion to boot !
Where in this story does this say the suspect worked for Obama? Another FOXtard staying on message and out of reality. Democrats alway make it easy for criminals to by guns, FYI the GOP in Ohio has made it legal to pack heat in bars. I wonder how that's going to turn out?
So this guy's crime was piece-meilling stripped uppers and lowers, grinding off the serials, and selling unlicensed to cartels? Understandable, I'm fine with controlling our state-side weapons. What I have the problem with is guys like the seller; guys like him give us gun enthusiasts a bad name. FWIW, it's not hard to assemble stripped uppers and lowers. Unless you're buying in bulk, the cost of the parts (trigger assemblies, bolt carriers, collapsible stocks, rails/handguards, etc) actually cost more than buying a low-end AR like an Olympic or DPMS or some lesser known off-brand M4-gery, which you can get for well under $500 at the gunshows. I think the real crime is the seller's being a dumbass for not doing it legally (and getting in line, pay the taxes on the sales, and competing legally with the US gubment). He needs to do time. I'm assuming he's now a guest of the government now. With an ATF wrapper on the warrant, he won't see daylight for a long f'ing time.
Or, the ATF had known about this guy for years and let it go assuming that his guns were going across the border, and decided that now that Gunwalker is blowing up, they better shut him down.
You're aware that the program was run by Ken Melson, acting director of the ATF, who was appointed to his job by Obama himself, right? That pretty much, uh, no separation at all. Hell, the guy had webcams installed so he could watch from his office.
Yeah, like those crazies at... CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/10/earlyshow/main20070475.shtml
If you want to blame the government, fine. The government does a lot of stupid things, including stupid things that get people killed. But agencies and the bureaucracy are pretty far separated from the administration and even Congress. The ATF and all the other agencies have almost become entities unto themselves. We can't directly blame Obama, Bush, or any other elected politician for their actions, except in that they all share some of the blame for letting the situation reach this point.
so basically the system worked? the parts dealer uploaded buyer information into the system the ATF agent looked at the sales records, saw something fishy and investigated.
Yeah, that's the ticket. If NPR isn't all over a story it isn't happening. Look up the acting head of the ATF's testimony to the congressional committee investigating the scandal. Or wait for NPR to do a story the day before Holder resigns...
Tin Foil hat
I've built my own ARs (and have friends who build their own AKs). I am glad the ATF caught this guy. He was breaking the law. I doubt that he did not know that the weapons he was building were going to people who were not legally allowed to have them. This is the type of investigative work the ATF should be doing. Not the idiotic Fast and Furious deal they had going on. Some people in the ATF and Justice Department need to be facing jail time for that operation.
And I thought Jim Schutze lived in East Dallas.
That's outrageous! Only the Obama administration, Holder and the ATF should be allowed to sell guns illegally to Mexican drug cartels. At least they have pure motives. This dude in Northwest Dallas was trying to make money (filthy capitalist swine!), but Obama and Holder were trying to advance the cause of gun control by providing ammunition (get it?) for one of their gun control talking points (that the violence in Mexico is caused by our Second Amendment). So what if several hundred Mexican cops and a couple of US border agents have been murdered with guns intentionally allowed into circulation by the administration. Omelets, eggs and all. The real focus and outrage should be on those who do the same thing without the pure political motives...