Dennis Wagner

The Republic | azcentral.com

A high-powered rifle seized during the Jan. 8 capture of Mexican cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was among hundreds of firearms allowed into Mexico years earlier in a controversial Arizona sting operation, according to a federal law-enforcement figure.

The Arizona Republic's source, who declined to be named, confirmed published reports that a Barrett .50-caliber weapon had been traced to the botched investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious. Eleven firearms were recovered from Guzman's hideout in Los Mochis following the Sinaloa Cartel leader's arrest, which came six months after he escaped from a Mexican prison.

The source said tracing has not yet been completed on two other .50-caliber guns found at the scene. He added that five of the 11 weapons — mostly semi-automatic assault rifles — came from Arizona, but others did not emanate from Fast and Furious. Grenade launchers and an RPG, or rocket-propelled grenade, also were recovered after the cartel shootout with military personnel.

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A .50-caliber gun is powerful enough to penetrate vehicles, aircraft and body armor

In 2011, Fast and Furious blew into a political scandal after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered with a rifle purchased during the sting, and after revelations that agents had allowed hundreds of guns to "walk" into Mexico as part a years-long effort to implicated drug lords. Many of those firearms have shown up at Mexican and U.S. crime scenes.

In 2010, for example, two guns later linked to Fast and Furious were found in a stolen vehicle that rammed a pair of Arizona Department of Public Safety cruisers in Maricopa before the driver fled into the desert. In 2011, a Sinaloan cartel official's arsenal uncovered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, included 40 Fast and Furious weapons.

Amid congressional inquiries in 2012, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke resigned, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director Kenneth Melson was replaced, and numerous agents in Phoenix were disciplined. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder denied authorizing the sting operation while acknowledging it was a mistake.

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Efforts by a U.S. House committee to obtain Fast and Furious records led to a showdown with the White House and Justice Department that included a contempt of Congress citation to Holder, and a federal lawsuit. Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that executive privilege is not applicable and ordered the White House to turn over requested documents.

Guzman's arrest occurred just days after Obama unveiled new executive actions designed to reduce gun violence, in part by requiring some Internet vendors to be licensed.

Meanwhile, a report by the Government Accountability Office earlier this month said 70 percent of the more than 100,000 guns seized in Mexico and traced over a five-year period ending in 2014 had originated in the United States, based on ATF data.