OIG releases findings in 'Fast and Furious' look-alike case

The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General released details on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation reminiscent of that agency's bungled "Fast and Furious" arms-smuggling investigation, and which the OIG said "details a pattern of serious failures and inadequate consideration of the public safety."

In a report released Oct. 28, the OIG faulted both ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in the handling of their investigation of one man's purchase and suspected transportation of grenade components into Mexico. 

The OIG launched its review of the grenade parts case during its separate review of Fast and Furious—when OIG investigators turned up allegations that ATF was using the same Fast and Furious strategy and tactics in dealing with a man named Jean Baptiste Kingery.

According to findings detailed in the OIG report, in October 2009 special agents from ATF’s Phoenix Division learned that Kingery was ordering large amounts of grenade components from an online military surplus dealer, and suspected that he was transporting them into Mexico for conversion into live grenades before supplying them to Mexican drug cartels.

ATF agents intercepted two deliveries of grenade components intended for Kingery, marked them for later identification, and then delivered them to Kingery’s shipping address. ATF agents tried to conduct surveillance of Kingery to see if he was taking the materials into Mexico, and tried to work with Mexican law enforcement officials to follow or arrest Kingery—all unsuccessfully. Several months later, ATF learned that two live grenades from a Mexican crime scene contained components with markings like those ATF had used.

Then in June 2010, Customs and Border Patrol agents discovered grenade hulls, grenade fuses and several thousand rounds of ammunition in the spare tire of a vehicle Kingery was attempting to drive into Mexico. On being questioned later that day, Kingery told ATF agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that he had loaded ammunition in the spare tire and that he knew it was illegal to transport grenades and ammunition out of the United States and into Mexico.

ATF and ICE agents then consulted an assistant U.S, attorney, who resisted charging Kingery that evening, so Kingery was allowed to leave if he returned the next day. He did, was interviewed again, and permitted to leave again without being charged, on the understanding that he would cooperate with law enforcement.

But ATF agents lost contact with Kingery—until he was stopped about a week later trying to re-enter the United States. ATF agents then asked the same assistant U.S. attorney once again to agree to Kingery’s arrest, but again the attorney declined, indicating Kingery could be indicted later. Kingery was released again, and returned to Mexico with no charges filed.

Finally, Mexican authorities, with ATF's help, arrested Kingery in August 2011 in Mexico, and currently are prosecuting him for violating Mexican organized crime laws. In the United States, after allegations of botched legal opportunities surfaced during the Fast and Furious affair, the Kingery case was moved to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where it still remains, according to the report.

The OIG's report concludes that Kingery should have been arrested and charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act long before he finally was charged—and outlines a number of flaws in his investigation that echo those in the Fast and Furious operation.

"The OIG concluded that these failures to coordinate predictably produced poorly conceived and executed operations," the OIG said in a summary of the report. "In order to address the tensions that were apparent in the Kingery investigation, the OIG recommended that the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, ATF leadership, and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee engage with the leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and CBP in an effort to identify and develop opportunities to improve these important and highly consequential relationships."