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   United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton, Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of central and northern Florida Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operations, and Susan McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Tampa Field Office announce the initial results of Operation Castaway, an intensive and wideranging Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) firearms trafficking investigation conducted by ATF, ICE, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and the Miami-Dade Police Department. ATF describes Operation Castaway as the most significant firearms trafficking investigation in Central Florida history.

   According to court documents, a group of defendants connected to Hugh Crumpler, III, were involved in a major international gun trafficking operation. . . . Firearms like those involved in this investigation are often smuggled through Honduras and other Central and South American countries before being used in violent crimes in Mexico and other countries in the region. A number of the firearms trafficked by the defendants in Operation Castaway have been linked to violent crimes around the world.

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Jay Dobyns began receiving death and violence threats in 2004 following his infiltration of the Hells Angels. That violence included verified murder contracts against him, credible threats to locate and torture his then 15-year-old daughter, threats to inject him with the AIDS virus to disguise the means murder, and genuine threats to kidnap his wife and videotape the Hells Angels gang raping her.ATF did nothing.

As a direct result, Jay filed a complaint against ATF for their mismanagement of the threats and settled it in 2007. In that formal settlement, ATF explicitly committed to doing whatever was necessary to prevent these outrageous threats against a badged federal agent and his family from ever occurring again.

Then, in August of 2007, Jay’s home was burned to the ground while his family slept inside. ATF determined that the fire was arson, but did nothing more. Not only did they make no attempt to locate the criminals, but even actively turned their backs on obvious opportunities to do so. Then, they even started a whisper campaign implying that Jay himself was responsible for the fire, even though it was immediately established that he was over 100 miles away conducting official ATF business. There is essentially no limit to how far these uncommon criminals will go to ruin anyone that stands up to their incompetence and corruption.

As a direct result of ATF’s refusal to honor their lawful obligations, Jay filed a civil lawsuit against ATF for breach of the 2007 settlement agreement. The Department of Justice, headed by Eric Holder and attorney Kent Kiffner, and with the direct co-conspiratorial assistance of ATF’s infamous Attorneys, Eleaner Loos, Rachael Bouman and Valerie Bacon, fought tooth and nail to have Jay’s lawsuit dismissed from Federal court.

Despite ATF’s best efforts to have Jay’s case thrown out, in 2010, United States District Court of Claims Judge, Hon. Francis Allegra, accepted Jay’s lawsuit, citing that clear grounds were displayed in his compliant to prove negligence, breach of contract, retaliation and reprisal by ATF.

Two weeks after acceptance of the Dobyn’s lawsuit, DOJ (again Holder, Kiffner, Loos, Bouman and Bacon) filed a countersuit against Jay, seeking one-half-million dollars in alleged “damages” to the DOJ, based on Jay’s New York Times Best Selling book, “No Angel”.

Here’s the kicker: The DOJ/ATF countersuit was filed three full years after ATF became aware of Jay’s book. Moreover, the completely bogus and frivolous lawsuit deliberately (and illegally) skipped over every relevant DOJ, ATF and OPM policy, law and regulation pertaining to mandatory procedures for the imposition of internal discipline. You see, according to ATF, Dobyns, who was and remains an ATF employee, apparently did something so seriously wrong as to deserve a million-dollar federal lawsuit, using the full weight and power of the United States government. However, these supposedly heinous acts by Jay did not merit even the most trivial form of disciplinary action! Not so much as a verbal admonishment, let alone suspension or termination! Get the picture?

This established a precedent that enabled Jay to expose the story publicly without violating other terms of the settlement agreement whereby ATF specifically authorized him to write “No Angel”. In short, ATF’s countersuit had absolutely zero merit and was filed solely for the purpose of ruining Jay financially. And this utterly illegal and despicable stratagem was wholeheartedly approved and supported by none other than current ATF Acting Director Ken Melson.

This is what lawyers call “malice aforethought” and “malicious prosecution”. It was perpetrated upon Jay with precisely the same motivations that led to their recently proposed termination of Jay’s friend and partner, Vince Cefalu. It was solely designed to “chill” anyone ever from so much as thinking of speaking out against ATF, to retaliate against Jay for his prior whistle-blowing, and in direct and illegal reprisal for his refusing to “sit down, shut up and go away”.

The chain of command during the first series of threats against Jay, during the arson of his home, and during Project “Gunrunner” and Operation “Fast and Furious” – you guessed it – Michael Sullivan, Ronnie Carter, Ken Melson, Billy Hoover, Bill McMahon, Bill Newell, George Gillett.

Coincidence? Right.

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Attorney General Roy David Urtecho says that street gangs in his country are seeking to establish direct business contacts with Colombian and Mexican cartels and they have also tried to take over all drug smuggling operations in the Central American nation of Honduras.

The gangs known as MS-13 and M-18, have recruited over 70,00 youths who have traditionally been the lookouts and sicarios for the capos, but they are now making an effort to take formal control of the drug trade within their own country.

Commenting at an international forum on law enforcement, Urtecho says that the Sinaloa cartel is one of the main groups that maintain a heavy presence in the area, and states that his country is an imprtant gateway for Colombian drugs to enter Mexico and the United States. He went further to say that Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán has stayed in Honduras at various times and continues to do so to this very day.

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Honduran officials report that Mexican drug traffickers are expanding their activities in the country and forming links with local bosses in four different provinces, fuelling concerns that organized crime is overwhelming the region.

According to Prensa Latina, Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas have been detected in Ocotepeque, Copan, Colon and Atlantida. The four northern states form much of the Atlantic coastline in Honduras, as well as a large chunk of the border with Guatemala. The Mexicans, Alvarez said, move freely throughout these regions, but rather than seeking to take over areas, the foreign gangs are working through already existing networks of local bosses to increase their presence and expand their operations.

This comes weeks after the discovery of a cocaine-processing lab, which are typically found in the Andean producer nations. This is the first such finding in Central America, and suggests a threat that is mutating. Currently, an estimated 400 tons of cocaine pass through the region on an annual basis, but Central America has not historically been a cocaine-processing region. Alvarez says that the goal for Honduras is to prevent Mexican gangs from laying down enduring roots in the country.

Authorities say that the Honduran cocaine lab was operated by the Sinaloa cartel. Arms stores belonging to the same group have also been captured in Honduras. The shift of cocaine processing from the Colombia, Peru and other Andean nations to Central America could fundamentally shift the economics of the cocaine supply chain. Rather than the South Americans controlling two vital steps in the process—i.e. the collection of the coca base and its processing in laboratories to produce crystallized cocaine—the Colombians would be left just supplying the base. This, in turn, would allow the Mexicans to derive significantly more profit, because instead of buying kilos of cocaine for up to $3,000, they can pay just $1,000 for the base and process it themselves, before selling it in U.S. for up to thirty times that amount.·

Furthermore, this would shorten the distance that the cocaine needs to travel, which would both lower the transportation costs and decrease the chance of seizure. As a major center of operations, Central America is all the more appealing because the weaker law-enforcement agencies mean that there is less chance that expensive cocaine will be seized, which further reinforces the profitability of a northward shift.·

The threat from organized crime to Central America is arguably more serious than in any other region of the Western Hemisphere. The isthmus has been a vital trafficking route ever since the restriction of the Caribbean route connecting the Colombian jungles to the retail markets in Miami and the rest of the United States. However,·the past decade has brought about a particular significant deterioration of security in Central America, with murder rates in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador among the highest in the world.

The incursion of Mexican drug traffickers has been most widely reported in Guatemala, as the Guatemalan government has struggled to prevent the incursion of the Zetas into states like Alta Verapaz and Peten. (Of course, there have also been reports that, far from combating them, elements of the Guatemalan governments are actually selling arms to groups linked to the Zetas.) Street gangs in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador like MS-13 and M-18 have also forged stronger links with the Mexican gangs.

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   As Mexican cartels infiltrate Central America, corrupt elements within the region’s militaries from places like Honduras are providing them with arms far superior to those of local police. But the question remains: Just how many of the weapons used by Mexican cartels come from military stockpiles in Central America versus civilian gun stores in the United States?

   The question is central. The source of the guns fueling a war that has left over 36,000 dead in Mexico since December 2006, has governments and advocate groups on both sides of the border pointing fingers. Mexico is reportedly considering suing U.S. gunmakers, reports CBS News.

   But gun stores along the U.S. border states are only one source of weaponry used in Mexico. As InSight has reported, Guatemala's military stockpiles have been filtered illegally to the Zetas criminal gang. On top of this, according to a 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable first obtained by WikiLeaks and recently released by McClatchy, the Honduran military has “lost” several U.S.-supplied military weapons in recent years.

   The cable, avaliable below, cites a Defense Intelligence Agency report entitled “Honduras: Military Weapons Fuel Black Arms Market,” which noted that the serial numbers on light anti-tank weapons recovered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and San Andres Island, Colombia, matched the numbers on guns that had previously been sold to Honduras. In addition to the guns, U.S. authorities seized a number of M433 grenades from criminal groups in Mexico, which were also traced back to the Honduran army.

   Such revelations, when paired with recent allegations of high-level government links to drug trafficking in Honduras, present a dim forecast for anti-arms trafficking efforts in Central America. They also add fuel to an already heated debate over the cartels' main source of arms. While testifying to the U.S. Senate on March 30, General Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, implied that corrupt military officers in Central America bear most of the responsibility for arming Mexican drug traffickers.

   "Over 50 percent of the military-type weapons that are flowing throughout the region have a large source between Central American stockpiles, if you will, left over from wars and conflicts in the past," said Fraser.

   Since then, major media outlets like the AFP and McClatchy have picked up the comment, casting it as proof that Central American military arms are fueling Mexico’s drug violence.

   But while General Fraser’s comment that over 50 percent of “military-type” weapons come from Central America may be true, it is misleading. The weapons coming from Central America only account for military-grade arms, which include anti-tank weapons as well as M-16 and G36 assault rifles.

   The civilian versions of these weapons, such as the AR-15 and the AK-47 variants, account for many more of the seizures made in Mexico, according to several United States Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) sources consulted by InSight. Indeed, ATF agents have repeatedly told InSight that the most commonly carried weapons by cartel foot soldiers are modified, automatic AK-47 variants from Romania and China. These cheaper versions are readily available in many American gun stores and bought, legally, by straw buyers at the behest of middlemen who sell them, illegally, en masse to the cartels in Mexico.

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FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- As we pass the six-month anniversary of the tragic Tucson shooting, multiple press reports indicate the Obama administration is planning to unveil new, but unspecified, gun control initiatives.

   At a Thursday briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “As you know, the President directed the Attorney General to form working groups with key stakeholders to identify common-sense measures that would improve Americans’ safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights. That process is well underway at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues. And we expect to have some more specific announcements in the near future.”

Carney provided no further details on the initiatives, but he isn’t the only one saying something is in the works.

   According to a related article on NPR.org, U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) said, “I have spoken to the president. He is with me on [gun control], and it’s just going to be when that opportunity comes forward that we’re going to be able to go forward.” And longtime anti-gun activist Sarah Brady has said that in March, the president told her “I just want you to know that we are working on [gun control] … We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Rest assured we’ll report any significant developments in the weeks ahead.