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Updated: Thursday, 29 Nov 2012, 12:42 PM MST
Published : Thursday, 29 Nov 2012, 12:42 PM MST
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Investigators say the now-notorious "Operation Fast and Furious" has a direct link to the gun-smuggling operation run by former leaders in the border town of Columbus.
Reports obtained by the Albuquerque Journal show federal agents were aware in early 2010 that the leader of the Columbus ring had been stopped a few months earlier with weapons purchased by a Fast and Furious suspect.
The botched federal weapons investigation allowed guns to cross the border where they were to be tracked. Instead agents lost control of the operation, the weapons ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels and prompted an ongoing congressional investigation.
That local connection apparently dried up, and ringleader and Columbus town Trustee Blas "Woody" Gutierrez began buying guns himself and paying others to buy guns for him from a New Mexico dealer.
He has pleaded guilty to gun smuggling but hasn't been sentenced yet.
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