ATF Chief Implicates FBI in Gunrunner Probe

Kenneth E. Melson, acting head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), has told Capitol Hill investigators that some Mexican drug cartel figures targeted by his agency in a gun-trafficking operation were in fact paid informants for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a report by sfgate.com.

The ATF reportedly allowed guns to be purchased in the United States in hopes they would be traced to cartel leaders, but the sting went way off course as the seed guns wound up at the scenes of crimes in Mexico and Nogales, Arizona -- where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was gunned down.

Melson said the FBI and DEA kept the ATF "in the dark" about their connections with the cartel informants.