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WASHINGTON — The ATF’s field supervisor on the Southwest border sent a series of e-mails last year to a White House national-security official detailing the agency’s ambitious efforts to stop weapons trafficking into Mexico, but he did not mention that a botched sting operation had allowed hundreds of guns to flow to drug cartels.
A White House official confirmed Thursday that William Newell of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said nothing about the tactics used to fight weapons traffickers, which included allowing “straw” purchasers to buy guns without immediately arresting them, in hopes that they would lead authorities to the cartels and reveal smuggling routes into Mexico.
