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#1 1desertrat

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Posted 04 January 2016 - 04:48 PM

I remember one case which to this day which makes me laugh thinking about ATF number scams played by some RACs and Agents.  Having to be part of a cover team and listening to the wire was like listening to Saturday Night Live.   It started out as couple of SA's finding some down and out tweakers in a run down trailer park.  They let it be known that they had money and were looking to buy some meth.  The tweakers said sure we can help make that happen and began selling them very small quantities of overpriced meth which they cut the crap out. 

 

Needing to put some numbers on the table for case productivity, the two agents asked them if they knew anyone interested in selling guns.  When asked what kind of guns the Agents wanted, the response was "like sawed off shotguns or machine guns".  One tweaker said "I know a guy with a shotgun" and the second one said "I have a hack saw".  A few minutes later there was shotgun, hack saw and a custom cut down operation going on to make the shotgun short enough to be illegal (at the Agents directions).  Again, the Agents paid crazy high prices for a piece of crap cut up shotgun to encourage future greedy bad behavior.  

 

A few days later there was another meth buy and the Agents now turned the conversation to "do you know anyone who could sell us pipe bombs"?   The bewildered tweakers figured these idiots would pay well for anything.  Once they asked the Agents to explain what a pipe bomb was and how to make it, the tweakers said, sure....come back tomorrow.  The next day there was a buy made of a hodge podge of PVC and metal pipes filled with gun powder.  Again, the Agents paid crazy high prices and were told they can have as many as they wanted.  

 

When the "bombs" were cracked open with a water bolt, they contained mostly underwear, socks and miscellaneous laundry as space filler.  The idiots figured they could stretch their gun powder  budgets and maximize profit by using small amounts of power and more laundry.  

 

In the end, the RAC spun the case as a 924© drug conspiracy using Title II firearms and explosives (short shotgun and pipe bombs).  Big search warrant and press conference on the "bomb making ring" and even some BS about connections to drug cartels.  I even think there were a bunch of awards given!!  You just can't make this shit up!

 

So, the moral of the story and others like Fast and Furious, if you need some numbers to justify something, just go out and create your own criminals and crimes. Hold a press conference and convince everyone how you are making the community safer. 



#2 abteilung

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Posted 20 December 2015 - 01:05 PM

Jaime:
I regularly write to my US Senator, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, about what a waste BATFE has become.  Let's not forget the arson program.  A couple of days ago, a church burned down in Delaware.  The local news made a BFD about "ATF" being on the scene.  What, a CFI or two, a couple of other agents who are pissed they're not able to check their TSP first thing in the morning, and maybe the RAC?  I doubt it if the ASAC drove up from Baltimore.  The local FM's and state officials had everything under control.  The average FM does more fires in a month than an BATFE CFI does in a year.  And what if it's arson?  Destruction of a church is a misdemeanor.  If the arsonist doesn't try to file a fraudulent insurance claim or can't be accused of a hate crime, where's the federal nexus?  It's just another example of BATFE agents throwing on the wrinkled raid jacket that's stuff in the GOV trunk behind the soccer coach gear or the football referee gear.

 

So, let's see: Bureau of Alcohol [what alcohol cases], Tobacco [what tobacco cases], Firearms [FBI doesn't need ATF to do an interstate nexus any more] and Explosives [if it's terrorism, it's the Bureau's case.  If not, why not let the locals handle it]......so why is there a federal agencies that does things three times more costly than the locals?  To keep cousins employed at the GS-14 and above level?



#3 x1811

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Posted 20 December 2015 - 04:00 AM

1desertrat, so true!



#4 1desertrat

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Posted 19 December 2015 - 05:05 PM

Here is the thing you have to remember.  ATF was originally justified as a Federal Agency on the premise of it doing national level crime fighting across state lines (affecting interstate commerce).  If anyone ever looked closely at the statistics, the vast majority of cases are simply adopted from the local PD or are local nickle and dime thugs with no real federal interest.  Other than doing a nexus statement saying "this gun traveled across a state line sometime in its live" ATF serves no real national mission any longer.  You could hire 2-3 local cops for the cost of one agent and impact crime more.  Even on those occasions when a "big" case is attempted, there are so many fingers in the pie with incompetent supervisors clamoring for a pat on the head, that it can't help but get fucked up and no one goes to jail.  

 

When you have a national attention shooting ATF shows up to simply show the jackets for the press.  At the most, they take the serial number of the gun and do a trace for the FBI or local LE to where it was purchased....which a high school kid could do.  If the world knew that the average agent makes $120K to do only a couple of simple cases a year or none at all (PA0/Project Officers/Program Managers/Dog Handles, Tech, Intel, etc)......and the useless supervisors are making upwards of $150k to poorly duplicate what the local cops are doing, there might be some blow back.  Think about a young sergeant in Afghanistan and the responsibility he has for  his troops.....which are significantly more than 10.  The sergeant makes no where near $150K for actually doing something dangerous.  An ATF RAC crys about how hard it is to run an office of maybe 10 (tops) and pulls $150K to sit behind a desk reading reports, going to the gym and home in his government provided car at 4:00

 

So, do you still wonder why they cook the books any which way they can on the statistics?



#5 Jaime3

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Posted 18 December 2015 - 12:17 PM

Who cares more about ATF padding numbers, Congress or NRA?

If you care and are aware of this happening send me a private message.




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