A Review of ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious and Related Matters

On October 31, 2009, special agents working in the Phoenix office of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) received
information from a local gun store about the recent purchases of multiple AK-
47 style rifles by four individuals. Agents began investigating the purchases
and soon came to believe that the men were so-called “straw purchasers”
involved in a large-scale gun trafficking organization responsible for buying
guns for transport to violent Mexican drug trafficking organizations. This
investigation was later named “Operation Fast and Furious.”1

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2012/s1209.pdf