A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.
FORTUNE -- In the annals of impossible assignments, Dave Voth's
ranked high. In 2009 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives promoted Voth to lead Phoenix Group VII, one of seven new
ATF groups along the Southwest border tasked with stopping guns from
being trafficked into Mexico's vicious drug war.
Some call it the "parade of ants"; others the "river of iron." The
Mexican government has estimated that 2,000 weapons are smuggled daily
from the U.S. into Mexico. The ATF is hobbled in its effort to stop this
flow. No federal statute outlaws firearms trafficking, so agents must
build cases using a patchwork of often toothless laws. For six years,
due to Beltway politics, the bureau has gone without permanent
leadership, neutered in its fight for funding and authority. The
National Rifle Association has so successfully opposed a comprehensive
electronic database of gun sales that the ATF's congressional
appropriation explicitly prohibits establishing one.
Voth, 39, was a good choice for a Sisyphean task. Strapping and
sandy-haired, the former Marine is cool-headed and punctilious to a
fault. In 2009 the ATF named him outstanding law-enforcement employee of
the year for dismantling two violent street gangs in Minneapolis. He
was the "hardest working federal agent I've come across," says John
Biederman, a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department. But as
Voth left to become the group supervisor of Phoenix Group VII, a friend
warned him: "You're destined to fail."
Voth's mandate was to stop gun traffickers in Arizona, the state
ranked by the gun-control advocacy group Legal Community Against
Violence as having the nation's "weakest gun violence prevention laws."
Just 200 miles from Mexico, which prohibits gun sales, the Phoenix area
is home to 853 federally licensed firearms dealers. Billboards advertise
volume discounts for multiple purchases.
Customers can legally buy as many weapons as they want in Arizona as
long as they're 18 or older and pass a criminal background check. There
are no waiting periods and no need for permits, and buyers are allowed
to resell the guns. "In Arizona," says Voth, "someone buying three guns
is like someone buying a sandwich.".......................
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