'Fast' guns show up in Mexico crimes

WASHINGTON — Three more weapons from the aborted “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking operation have been recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, according to Justice Department documents.

The guns, all WASR-10 762-caliber rifles, were traced this week to the Lone Wolf gun shop in Glendale, Ariz., CBS News reported on Thursday, citing the documents.

An estimated 1,400 guns are still on the street or unaccounted for.

The controversial operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives encouraged gun stores to sell huge numbers of weapons to suspected members of drug cartels in hopes of catching a major cartel leader.

The guns have been recovered at a number of crime scenes, including the killing of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in 2011 and a Border Patrol officer in 2010.

Two of the guns recovered this week were among 700 purchased by Uriel Patino, Fox News reported. The third was bought by Sean Steward, who was convicted of gun charges in 2012.

In November, a Fast and Furious weapon was found at a shootout between a Mexican drug cartel and soldiers where a beauty queen was killed. Two weapons in the murder of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in 2011 were used by suspects who were under ATF watch but not arrested at the time. And two Fast and Furious AK-47 type rifles were recovered from the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.