Daily Border Bulletin: Justice Department weighs in on Fast and Furious, in Arizona a big bust and hackers fight cartels

Justice Department weighs in on FF: A Senior Justice Department official awknowledged, "that the controversial “gun-walking” tactics were used in a gun-trafficking operation carried out five years ago during the Bush administration, but did not take aggressive steps to ensure that such techniques were not repeated in other federal investigations"

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, awknowledged that they should have stopped the practice during the Bush administration:  

“Knowing what I now know was a pattern of unacceptable and misguided tactics used by the ATF, I regret that I did not alert others within the leadership of the Department of Justice to the tactics used in Operation Wide Receiver when they first came to my attention.”

CBS's Early Show, has a great video on "gun walking" during the Bush adminstration, as well as the history of the gun smuggling along the southwest border.

Drug Smuggling Ring Busted In Arizona:  "Law enforcement officials on Monday announced the breakup of a large drug-smuggling ring that used lookouts on hilltops in southern Arizona to move huge quantities of marijuana and other drugs across the Mexican border to users throughout the United States.

Over the last month and a half, federal, state and local officials have arrested 76 people, from organizational bosses to stash-house guards to those who transported the drugs in backpacks and in vehicles, the authorities said.

…Arizona officials estimated that the ring had been in operation for at least five years and had generated more than $2 billion in profits by smuggling more than three million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into the United States. "

Hackers Take on Cartel: "The hackers’ message, delivered via YouTube by a man wearing a red tie and a Guy Fawkes mask, was as bold and risky as anything produced by the Zetas, Mexico’s most ruthless crime syndicate. But this time, the Zetas were the target.  They had kidnapped a geek with backup — a respected member of the hackers collective known as Anonymous.

“You have made a great mistake by taking one of us,” said the video’s masked figure. “Release him.”  

Or else, the message said, the names of government officials, taxi drivers and journalists who worked with the Zetas would be published online. The goal, they said, was the arrest of these suspected collaborators, but was there a possibility they might be killed by a rival cartel? Yes, said self-identified members of Anonymous, acknowledging the danger."