Mexican police chief killed with “fast and furious” rifle

The Fast and Furious scandal has faded somewhat from the consciousness of even President Obama’s fiercest critics. How could it not, in view of the multitude of more recent Obama administration scandals.

But Fast and Furious may return to the radar screen in light of this report:

A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico.

Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded.

Local authorities said eight suspects in their 20s and 30s were arrested after police seized them nearby with a cache of weapons. . . . A semi-automatic WASR rifle, the firearm that killed the chief, was traced back to the Lone Wolf Trading Company, a gun store in Glendale, Ariz. The notation on the Department of Justice trace records said the WASR was used in a “HOMICIDE � WILLFUL � KILL �PUB OFF �GUN” �ATF” code for “Homicide, Willful Killing of a Public Official, Gun.”

Mexican authorities say that more than 200 people have been killed in Mexico by Fast and Furious weapons. In the U.S., a Fast and Furious weapon was found at the Arizona scene where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered.

This is a scandal that shouldn’t go away, and certainly not as long as Attorney General Holder remains in contempt of the Congress that’s trying to investigate it.

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