MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors said Sunday they have indicted seven people, including former top officials, in the “Fast and Furious” arms trafficking scandal.
The December 2010 murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry exposed the failed “Fast and Furious” investigation, in which officers from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to buy guns with the intent to follow the guns.
But the agency lost most of the guns, including two that were found at the scene of Terry’s death in southern Arizona. The US government has strongly pursued the prosecution of the men involved in the murder.
Mexico says gangs of Mexican traffickers and former officials also participated in or failed to stop the arms trade.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office said on Sunday it had filed arms trafficking charges against seven people in the more than a decade-old case, including the country’s former top police official, Genaro Garcia Luna. , and former drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019 and is currently facing trial in the United States for allegedly protecting a drug gang. Mexico has requested his extradition to face charges of illegal enrichment.
García Luna served as head of security in President Felipe Calderón’s administration from 2006 to 2012 and led the government’s fight against organized crime.
Former federal police commander Luis Cardenas Palomino, considered García Luna’s right-hand man, was also charged. Mexico has already arrested Cardenas Palomino for torture, and US prosecutors have separately charged him with taking millions in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
Mexico also indicted Guzman in the arms trafficking case, but he is already serving a life sentence in Colorado.
