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Showing posts with label firearms and explosives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label firearms and explosives. Show all posts
Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showed that noise suppressors — frequently used in sporting events to protect hearing — “are seldom used in crime,” according to a report by NPR, which is anything but a pro-gun news outlet.
“From 2012-15, 390 silencers were recovered from crime scenes where an ATF trace was requested,” the leftist news outlet reported, relying on data it obtained from the ATF’s website. “During that same period, more than 600,000 pistols were recovered.”
In other words, only 0.065 percent of the weapons recovered from the scenes of robberies, murders and other crimes involved these devices.
This was one important reason why the GOP-led Congress has begun to pursue the deregulation of “silencers” — which according to NPR were “one of the most heavily regulated products in the gun industry” — by moving forward with a bill dubbed the Hearing Protection Act.
The bill would make the process of purchasing a suppressor similar to the one used to obtain a hunting rifle, removing a lengthy nine-month waiting period and nixing unnecessary fees.
As noted by McClatchy, supporters correctly argued that passage of the bill “would guard the hearing of millions of hunters who don’t use earmuffs or plugs to shield their ears from their guns’ loud reports, which have been proved to cause hearing loss,” by making it easier for them to obtain suppressors.
And yet, despite facts such as these, there was a concerted effort by liberal legislators and gun-control groups to stop Congress from passing this bill.
“This act is reckless,” whined David Chipman, a senior policy adviser at former Rep. Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions. “And it’s a threat to public safety.”
The facts strongly suggested otherwise. But judging by the ARS’ tweets, the group did not care much for facts.
Arguing that “(s)ilencers do not protect your hearing” is akin to arguing that oven gloves do not protect your hands. It’s so factually inaccurate as to just be dumb.
The same applies to the phony contention that deregulated suppressors would be bought up in droves by criminals. Excuse us for asking this for the umpteenth time, but when have criminals ever cared about regulations or the law?
A.T.F. Filled Secret Bank Account With Millions From Shadowy Cigarette Sales
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Charlie Batten, a fifth-generation tobacco farmer and U.S. Tobacco Cooperative Inc. board member, at his farm in Four Oaks, N.C. The co-op negotiated a deal to buy a tobacco distribution company whose owners had secret ties to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.CreditJeremy M. Lange for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Working from an office suite behind a Burger King in southern Virginia, operatives used a web of shadowy cigarette sales to funnel tens of millions of dollars into a secret bank account. They weren’t known smugglers, but rather agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The operation, not authorized under Justice Department rules, gave agents an off-the-books way to finance undercover investigations and pay informants without the usual cumbersome paperwork and close oversight, according to court records and people close to the operation.
The secret account is at the heart of a federal racketeering lawsuit brought by a collective of tobacco farmers who say they were swindled out of $24 million. A pair of A.T.F. informants received at least $1 million each from that sum, records show.
The scheme relied on phony shipments of snack food disguised as tobacco. The agents were experts: Their job was to catch cigarette smugglers, so they knew exactly how it was done.
Government records and interviews with people involved reveal an operation that existed on a murky frontier — between investigating smuggling and being complicit in it. After The New York Times began asking about the operation last summer, the Justice Department disclosed it to the department’s inspector general’s office, which is investigating. The inspector general “expressed serious concerns,” court records show.
It is unclear how broadly the A.T.F. adopted this practice, at what level it was approved, and whether it continues. Nearly all references to the A.T.F. have been blacked out of public court records, and most documents are entirely sealed.
The investigation and the looming racketeering trial will bring renewed scrutiny to the A.T.F., which has been buffeted in recent years by the botched gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious and its mismanagement of undercover investigations. Members of Congress, particularly Republicans, have heaped criticism on the agency for decades, and the National Rifle Association has lobbied to limit the agency’s authority and funding.
While government auditors have previously cited problems with A.T.F.’s tobacco investigations, this operation went beyond what was identified in that audit, released in 2013. The A.T.F. and the Justice Department declined to comment.
Documents in the racketeering lawsuit outline the A.T.F. operation. The tobacco cooperative is suing a former employee and a consultant who, according to court documents, both worked as A.T.F. informants. The informants have denied all wrongdoing.
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Discarded cigarettes at a U.S. Tobacco manufacturing plant in Timberlake, N.C. The U.S. Tobacco co-op is made up of about 700 tobacco farmers who pool their crops and share the profits.CreditJeremy M. Lange for The New York Times
Part of their defense, records show, is that they acted on behalf of the government. In response, a judge recently added the United States government as a defendant.
Since last summer, The Times has fought to make all the documents public, but the Justice Department has argued successfully in court to keep them secret. Crucial details, however, have been revealed through poor redaction, documents that were filed publicly by mistake and the sheer difficulty of keeping so much a secret for so long.
Buying Into an Operation
In spring 2011, U.S. Tobacco Cooperative was looking to expand its distribution network. The co-op is made up of about 700 tobacco farmers — from Virginia to Florida — who pool their crops and share the profits. Based in Raleigh, N.C., the company is a major exporter to China and produces discount-brand cigarettes including Wildhorse, Traffic and 1839.
“These are really, really good people,” said Stuart D. Thompson, the cooperative’s chief executive. “Every year, they take all their chips. They put them on the table, and they hope they get them all back.”
The company began negotiating to buy a tobacco distributor in Bristol, Va., Big South Wholesale. Big South’s owners, Jason Carpenter and Christopher Small, had a network of customers and owned a warehouse.
They also had an existing secret relationship with the A.T.F., records show.
The two men have filed court documents acknowledging “participation in undercover law enforcement activities.” And a judge’s sealed order, which is publicly available online, revealed that the two men worked “on behalf of various government agencies, primarily the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.”
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Jason Carpenter and Christopher Small, who owned Big South Wholesale in Bristol, Va., have acknowledged participating in undercover law enforcement operations.
The basics of cigarette smuggling are simple. Each state sets its tobacco taxes. Buying cigarettes in low-tax states, like Virginia, and secretly selling them in higher-tax states, like New York, generates large profits. More complicated schemes have shipped cigarettes to Indian reservations, where they are not taxed, then rerouted them for sale on the black market.
A.T.F. agents try to disrupt these networks. Often that means working with informants to buy and sell tobacco on the black market, much the way agents pose as drug dealers to investigate cartels.
Because so much of the case remains sealed, Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Small are prohibited from answering questions about nearly every aspect of the case. “Everything we did that is being attacked now in litigation, we did in good faith,” they said in a statement.
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Stuart D. Thompson, chief executive of U.S. Tobacco, on the manufacturing floor of the plant in Timberlake, N.C.CreditJeremy M. Lange for The New York Times
Exactly who at U.S. Tobacco knew about their A.T.F. ties and what they knew are a matter of dispute. But there were signs that Big South was not a simple tobacco distributor. Its assets included more than two dozen vehicles, including expensive S.U.V.s and a fleet of Mercedes, B.M.W., Audi, Lexus and Jaguar sports cars.
Early 2011 was a time of intense pressure inside the A.T.F. The agency was under fire from Congress over the Fast and Furious operation, in which agents allowed gun traffickers to buy weapons and ship them to Mexico, hoping the shipments could lead them to major weapons dealers. Justice Department auditors began scrutinizing how A.T.F. agents managed their tobacco smuggling investigations.
With that audit continuing, the A.T.F. issued new rules to tightly monitor undercover investigations. Soon after those rules went into effect, U.S. Tobacco completed its purchase of Big South for $5.5 million, a deal that gave Big South the authority to buy and sell cigarettes on behalf of the cooperative. Almost immediately, the farmers say, Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Small began defrauding them.
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It worked like this: An export company working with the A.T.F. placed an order for cigarettes to be shipped internationally — thus not subject to American taxes. Big South would instead ship bottled water and potato chips, making it look as if cigarettes had been exported. Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Small would then buy the tobacco at a slight markup through a private bank account. Lastly, they would sell the tobacco to Big South, again at a markup.
Because they had the authority to buy on behalf of the tobacco cooperative, “Carpenter and Small simply sold products to themselves,” the farmers wrote in court documents. All of these transactions occurred on paper. The cigarettes never left the Virginia warehouse.
“It’s what I saw with my own eyes,” said Brandon Moore, the warehouse manager and one of the people who discussed the transactions in the case. Their accounts fit with descriptions in court records.
Mr. Moore said he was aware of the A.T.F. operation but became troubled by it as he learned more. “It shouldn’t be going on, even if it is the A.T.F.,” he said.
In one deal described in the lawsuit, the informants bought tobacco at $15 a carton and sold it to U.S. Tobacco at $17.50. The profit, about $519,000, went into what was known as a “management account.” That account, while controlled by Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Small, helped pay for A.T.F. investigations.
Mr. Moore, the warehouse manager, said agents often told him what to buy on the company’s credit card. For instance, he recalled spending tens of thousands of dollars at Best Buy on iPads, televisions and other gifts to curry favor with potential criminal targets.
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A testing room at U.S. Tobacco’s Timberlake facilities, where buyers can sample types of tobacco.CreditJeremy M. Lange for The New York Times
Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Small have also acknowledged in court documents receiving more than $1 million each, though it is not clear from public documents whether that was profit or reimbursement for expenses paid on behalf of the government.
How that arrangement began is unclear. Ryan Kaye, an A.T.F. supervisor, testified that the management account was created “as a result of verbal directives from the A.T.F. program office and other headquarters officials.” Mr. Kaye’s full statement is sealed, but excerpts are cited in one publicly available document.
The defendants in the lawsuit contend that U.S. Tobacco got a good deal on the cigarettes, even at the prices they paid. The farmers tell a different story, saying they never would have purchased Big South if they understood that Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Small had a side arrangement that involved selling them tobacco at inflated values.
Thomas Lesnak, a retired A.T.F. agent who was involved in the operation, dismissed suggestions that anything was done improperly. He said he could not discuss Big South because the Justice Department was still conducting investigations based on information developed during operations based at the warehouse.
The arrangement began to break down in late 2012, when Mr. Thompson joined U.S. Tobacco as the chief financial officer. He was curious why his warehouse was placing so many orders for a brand of cigarette that competes against U.S. Tobacco. He could not get a straight answer, the company said in court documents.
In March 2013, Mr. Moore picked up the phone, called Mr. Thompson and explained what was happening. “I did what I did because of the ethics of it,” Mr. Moore said recently. “What was happening there was wrong.”
Once U.S. Tobacco discovered the bookkeeping irregularities, it reported them to the Justice Department, which investigates white-collar crime and government misconduct. Records show that the Justice Department, which includes the A.T.F., investigated some aspects of the case but no charges were filed.
“We voted unanimously to give everything we had to the government,” said Charlie Batten, a U.S. Tobacco board member whose family has worked the same North Carolina soil for generations. “We thought they would take it and run with it. What happened was, they’ve fought us tooth and nail.”
Because of the sealing order, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Batten and others are prohibited from discussing what happened to the money — even with their own farmers.
Three years into its lawsuit, U.S. Tobacco still cannot disentangle itself from the government. The cooperative recently told a judge that it was under investigation by the Treasury Department.
All those secret tobacco sales, it turns out, should have been taxed. And the government wants its money.
When Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was on the run from authorities, one of the guns guarding his hideout was sold through the Obama administration’s failed “Fast and Furious” weapons program.
Officials have disclosed that a .50-caliber rifle designed to shoot down a helicopter was found inside the Mexican hideout in the Jan. 8 raid when the Sinaloa Cartel chief was captured. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have revealed the serial number proved the rifle came from the U.S. government’s program.
The Fast and Furious “sting” involved federal agents allowing criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking the weapons to learn who was supplying illegal weapons to Mexican drug gangs. The operation was a disaster. Although 34 indictments were filed in the program that ran from 2009-2011, ATF agents lost track of 1,400 of the 2,000 guns involved in the operation.
Officials said they are investigating how many of the weapons found at El Chapo’s hideout came from the U.S. and how they were obtained.
The Fast and Furious program has been a political nightmare for President Obama, who on Tuesday lost a round in a court dispute over documents relating to the program. Obama claimed he could use executive privilege to prevent Congress from seeing documents about the program. However, a judge ruled against him.
The program was first uncovered to the public when a border patrol agent was killed in 2012 using weapons sold through Fast and Furious. Congress sought documents about the failed project, but then-Attorney General Eric Holder refused to provide them. Holder was later found in contempt by Congress, but Obama continued to refuse to release the documents.
On March 15, the ATF broke into four different Ares Armor stores in San Diego, California. The ATF claimed the purpose of the raid was due to the sale of AR-15 lowers.TeaParty.org reports:
Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided four Ares Armor gun-parts stores in San Diego over the weekend and now criticism is being lobbed that the primary purpose was to collect the names and addresses of customers, reported WND.
According to San Diego’s KSWB-TV, although there was a temporary restraining order in place, the ATF agents obtained a search warrant by privately going to a judge and claiming that it was investigating alleged violations of federal firearms laws stemming from the sale of a new plastic version of the 80 percent lowers of AR-15 rifles.
As the TV report explained, building a rifle with specific versions of the 80 percent receivers is legal, however, the ATF claims the polymer lower receiver appears to be manufactured differently with two parts. According to the ATF that makes them a firearm and illegal to sell.
Here’s the video of the ATF raid in National City, California:
What makes this story so unusual is that Ares Executive Officer Dimitrios Karras has been cooperating with authorities from the beginning.
As soon as the legality of the polymer lower receivers was called into question, Karras locked them up to prevent any illegal sales.
Furthermore, he offered to turn over all the parts in question to the ATF until such time as a resolution could be reached. Based on the ATF’s initial justification for the raid, you would think they would have accepted this offer, but they did not.
So if the ATF was not really interested in the polymer lower receivers, then why did they raid the Ares Armor stores?
When federal ATF agents raided [Karras's] stores, agents demanded the lists and confiscated computers, which may hold records, he said.
“I offered to give them keys to the room [containing] the product,” Karras said. “They didn’t want that. They wanted the customer list.”
“Outrageous,” said Michael Hammond of Gun Owners of America about the San Diego raid.
“Obviously, the ATF could have gotten the parts if it wanted them. What it wanted was the customer list,” said Hammond.
In this day and age of government overreach, police brutality, and unconstitutional searches and seizures, customers of Ares Armor have a real reason to be concerned.
A local Fox affiliate reported one customer who said, “I’m on that list, and I’m waiting for the knock on the door to tell me they are here to remove my Second Amendment rights.”
