Mexico’s foreign minister announced in a video posted on Twitter that he sent a note to the US Embassy asking for answers about an ill-fated gun-running scheme dubbed “Fast and Furious” during the Obama administration, according to a report.
“The [Mexican] government requests that it be provided with all the information available regarding the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation,” Marcelo Ebrard said, Reuters reported.
He cited former US Attorney General Eric Holder as saying Mexican authorities knew about the 2009-2011 scheme, which allowed people to buy arms illegally in the US and take them to Mexico, so they could be tracked to drug cartel bosses and lead law enforcement there.
The scheme hoped to limit gun smuggling across the border.
A review of the operation found that only 710 out of about 2,000 firearms were recovered as of February 2012, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
In 2011, Holder – who was the attorney general between 2009 and 2015 — had requested the OIG to conduct a review of the operation.
Last week, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his government would send a note to Washington for information on the operation, as his regime digs for possible corruption under previous administrations.
It was the first time Ebrard or Obrador made direct reference by name to a key US official connected to the program since the matter resurfaced in Mexico a week ago.
“How could this be? A government that invades in this way, that flagrantly violates sovereignty, international laws,” Obrador said at a news conference, according to Reuters.