The majority of weapons seized at crime scenes in Mexico have been traced back to the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The
El Paso Times, which obtained the figures, reports that from 2007 to 2011, 68,161 firearms out of 99,691 found at crime scenes over the border — about 68 percent — originated from U.S. gun manufacturers or dealers.
Those figures do not break out numbers involving the agency's disastrous gunrunning operation Fast and Furious, during which guns were allowed to be smuggled into Mexico in a bid to bust up major gun-trafficking rings.
Fast and Furious was abruptly terminated when Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was gunned down near the Mexican border and a rifle connected to the operation was found near his body.
Earlier this month, GOP Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, who initiated the original Fast and Furious probe, called for a new investigation involving another incident, the Times reported.
He said an ex-ATF official may have bought a gun allegedly found at the scene of a November shootout between drug cartel thugs and Mexican soldiers. The area of the shootout coincides with a gun battle that killed several others.
"The gunfight claimed five lives, including a member of the Mexican military, and a Sinaloa beauty queen, Maria Susana Flores Gamez," Grassley wrote in a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
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