2009 (PACT ACT)

Alcohol & Tobacco Diversion / Smuggling

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Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (PACT Act) Notice

On March 31, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (PACT Act). The law goes into effect on June 29, 2010. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is currently working to publish an Interpretive Rule, including a request for comments, in the Federal Register. This website will be updated as further developments occur.

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Vision

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) seeks to reduce alcohol smuggling and contraband cigarette trafficking activity, divest criminal and terrorist organizations of monies derived from this illicit activity and significantly reduce tax revenue losses to the States.

Mission

The alcohol and tobacco diversion mission is:

• to disrupt and eliminate criminal and terrorist organizations by identifying, investigating and arresting offenders who traffic in contraband cigarettes and illegal liquor;
• to conduct financial investigations in conjunction with a alcohol and tobacco diversion investigations in order to seize and deny further access to assets and funds utilized by criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations;
• to prevent criminal encroachment of the legitimate alcohol and tobacco industries by organizations trafficking in counterfeit/contraband cigarettes and illegal liquor and;
• to assist local, state, and other Federal law enforcement and tax agencies in order to thoroughly investigate the interstate trafficking of contraband cigarettes and liquor.

http://www.atf.gov/alcohol-tobacco/

National Tracing Center Division

http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-3312-7.pdf

Fire arms tracing branch

Law enforcement support branch

Industry records branch

(NRT) National Response Team

http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-3510-1.pdf

EDITORIAL

Ducking for Cover Before the N.R.A.

Published: September 17, 2010

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The Obama administration still has not nominated a director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That can only be seen as a dangerous homage to the National Rifle Association, whose legions of Congressional sycophants undoubtedly are just waiting for the cue to trash whomever the White House chooses. That’s still no excuse.

The bureau is supposed to be the main enforcer of the nation’s gun control laws, policing federally licensed dealers and lately stopping illegal gun shipments across the Mexican border.

Mexico has been pleading with President Obama and Congress to do more to control the American supply of battlefield weapons to the drug cartels. Three-quarters of the 80,000 firearms confiscated by Mexican authorities came from the United States in a recent four-year period that saw 28,000 killed in the drug wars, according to a study by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The problem isn’t just across the border. Tens of thousands of Americans are shot to death each year. So what does Congress do? It panders to the gun lobby.

In a shameful sign of the times, the House took care to pass a bankruptcy measure that exempted firearms from seizure by creditors. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a measure cynically termed the Reform and Firearms Modernization Act is a piñata for the gun lobby and would drive the leaderless Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives further toward impotency.

The minority of rogue gun dealers now selling most crime guns would be shielded under the bill. The federal government would be blocked from shutting down or fining unscrupulous dealerships, unless prosecutors could prove egregious offenders “willfully” intended to break a law they specifically knew about. Dealers who profit richly from the reported “loss” of high-powered crime weapons would no longer face loss of their licenses.

Congress needs to stop pandering. And the White House needs to stop cowering and listen to six former officials at the A.T.F. who called on the president to appoint a new director. They warned that the longer the job stays unfilled, “the consequences grow deadlier.”

ATF Officer Involved In Cocoa Shooting

Posted: 12:17 pm EDT May 21, 2010Updated: 6:48 pm EDT May 21, 2010

COCOA, Fla. -- An undercover operation erupted into a shooting and chase in Cocoa. Federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents were working with deputies and police at Dixon Boulevard and Clearlake Road (see map) when a gunfight broke out outside Winn-Dixie.

One suspect was hit and two were eventually arrested. he suspects and police both opened fire in the middle of the parking lot. Then a chase ensued down Dixon Boulevard, just a few blocks, where it ended with a crash and foot pursuit.

It was a heart-pounding moment for shopper Alicia Thomas.

"We thought it was backfire, then all you heard was bullets, ‘Pow, pow, pow!" she described.

Thomas was about to step into the parking lot with her two daughters when a gun-battle erupted right in front of them.

"We just whipped around, headed home. People were in the parking lot diving, it was unreal," Thomas said.

Federal agents with ATF, Brevard County deputies and Cocoa police were doing an undercover sting trying to bust suspects in a drug and gun dealing operation. However, something went wrong.

"The two individuals involved that were about to be arrested brandished fire arms and started shooting at the officers," said Wayne Ivey, FDLE.

The officers fired back, littering the parking lot with bullets. FDLE is now investigating.

The suspects sped off a few blocks away, slammed into a street sign, bailed out and took off on foot.

"Some kind of sting was going on with that many cops, that quick," eyewitness Paul Harris said.

Police nabbed the two suspects, who suffered dog bites. One was shot and had to be airlifted to Holmes Regional Medical Center.

Alicia Thomas is just glad it's over, but still can't understand why it had to happen in a busy shopping center.

"If they're trying to bust drugs and everything fantastic, but to do it in a parking lot is kind of scary," she said.

Even though it wasn't FDLE’s operation, investigators say sometimes they have to meet in public places because that's where the suspects insist on doing the deals.

Investigators have not released the suspects’ names or charges. They are both expected to live.

http://www.wftv.com/news/23633431/detail.html

ATF ANNOUNCES 7 NEW GUNRUNNER GROUPS AND PHOENIX GUN RUNNER IMPACT TEAMS’ SUCCESSES

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

News Release

Public Affairs Division – Washington, DC

For Immediate Release

September 17, 2010

www.atf.gov

FY-10-20

Contact: Public Affairs Division

(202) 648-8500

ATF ANNOUNCES 7 NEW GUNRUNNER GROUPS AND PHOENIX GUN RUNNER IMPACT TEAMS’ SUCCESSES

PHOENIX — Deputy Director Kenneth E. Melson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today announced the formation of seven new Project Gunrunner firearms trafficking groups during a news conference in which he and Dennis K. Burke, United States Attorney, District of Arizona, announced the results of ATF’s Gun Runner Impact Team (GRIT) initiative, a nearly 100-day deployment ofATF resources to the Phoenix Field Division to disrupt illegal firearms trafficking by Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

As a result of the 2010 emergency supplemental appropriation for border security, ATF received $37.5 million for Project Gunrunner, ATF’s comprehensive firearms trafficking strategy to disrupt the illegal flow of firearms into Mexico. With this funding, ATF will establish and place firearms trafficking groups along traditional and newly-discovered firearms trafficking routes and hubs in Atlanta; Dallas; Brownsville, Texas; Las Vegas; Miami; Oklahoma City; and Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Lives are being lost to violent crime every day on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border, said Melson. Through Project Gunrunner and its GRIT initiative, ATF is shutting down the supply routes of firearms traffickers along the border and further inland.

The GRIT initiative brought more than 80 experienced ATF personnel from around the country to Arizona and New Mexico. GRIT special agents initiated 174 firearms trafficking-related criminal investigations and seized approximately 1,300 illegally-trafficked firearms and 71,000 rounds of ammunition, along with drugs and currency. ATF’s industry operations investigators conducted more than 800 federal firearms licensee compliance inspections.

We are fighting on a crucial front here today to reduce violence in our own communities, and to disrupt and dismantle the southbound supply of weapons to the cartels, said Burke. We will not be a gun locker for the cartels, who have made murder and mayhem their modus operandi. We will not tolerate violent criminals and others who illegally possess, purchase or sell firearms.

Burke announced that 96 defendants have been arrested, charged, convicted or sentenced since June 2010 on gun-related charges. The majority of defendants include violent felons, drug traffickers who use weapons, and those trafficking firearms to Mexico. Cases involved more than 370 guns — many of them AK-47 style rifles and other weapons of choice of drug cartels — and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition smuggled into or destined for Mexico. Some of the guns seized in the investigation, including a .50 caliber weapon, were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico.

Recent examples of firearms prosecutions in the District of Arizona:

U.S. v. Arizmendiz et al.

In July and August, two leaders of a firearms trafficking conspiracy that supplied at least 112 firearms — mostly AK-47 style — to the Sinaloa Cartel, were sentenced. Alejandroi Medrano, 23, and Hernan Ramos, 22, both of Mesa, Ariz., were sentenced to 46 and 50 months in prison, respectively, for leading a conspiracy involving 10 defendants who straw purchased firearms from gun dealers in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., in order to supply them to a member of the Sinaloa Cartel known as Rambo.

U.S. v. Gaeda et al.

On June 3, following an ATF investigation involving more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition,ATF agents arrested Emmanuel Casquez, Elias Vasquez, and Charice Gaeda for unlawfully exporting ammunition to Mexico. Agents had learned the three were purchasing vast quantities of ammunition and searched a vehicle headed for the border port at Nogales and recovered 9,500 rounds of ammunition; a search of a residence ensued and an additional 27,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered.

U.S. v. Ibarra et al.

In July, a 20-count indictment announced charging 10 straw purchasers, recruited by then 17-year-old Francisco Ibarra, to buy at least 25 firearms. ATF believes the firearms were trafficked into Mexico.

For more information on ATF and Project Gunrunner, please go to the ATF website, www.atf.gov.

http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/2010/09/091710-atf-announces-seven-new-gunrunner-groups.html

CRS Report

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/attachment/a.pdf?_m=fb6dd9bf1eab665d675c53ae77849f76&wchp=dGLbVlz-zSkSA&_md5=3cbbecbd814f64c20da229944264a837&ie=a.pdf

TWO PORT ARTHUR MEN SENT TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR GUN THEFTS DURING HURRICANE IKE EVACUATION

U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Eastern District of Texas

www.justice.gov/usao/txe

For Immediate Release

September 15, 2010

John M. Bales, United States Attorney

Contact: Davilyn Walston, Public Information Officer
(409) 981-7902
(409) 553-9881 (cell)

TWO PORT ARTHUR MEN SENT TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR GUN THEFTS DURING HURRICANE IKE EVACUATION

Operation Time Machine Closes Door on Pawn Shop Burglary

BEAUMONT, Texas — Two Port Arthur, Texas residents have been sentenced to federal prison as a result of Operation Time Machine in the Eastern District of Texas announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

Emrick Christopher Knight, 31, pleaded guilty on Apr. 13, 2010 to possession of a stolen firearm and was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison and Elio Acevedo, 21, pleaded guilty on Apr. 14, 2010 to possession of a stolen firearm and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. The sentencing hearings were held on Sep. 14, 2010 before U.S. District Judge Ron Clark.

According to information presented in court, on Sep. 14, 2008, Knight, Acevedo, and Ronzell Gonzales participated in the burglary of Mike Smith Pawn Shop on Gulfway Drive in Port Arthur during the Hurricane Ike mandatory evacuation. On Sep. 17, 2008, Knight was arrested for violation of the curfew in place during the evacuation and was found in possession of a .38 caliber revolver that was stolen during the pawn shop burglary. On Sep. 18, 2008, Acevedo was arrested while in the process of burglarizing a home in the 3600 block of Avalon in Port Arthur. He was in possession of a .32 caliber pistol which was also stolen during the pawn shop burglary. Gonzales was also arrested during the Sep. 18th burglary and found to be in possession of several firearms from the pawn shop burglary. The men were indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 2, 2009 and charged with federal firearms violations. Gonzales was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison on Aug. 26, 2010.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods’ Operation Time Machine program. Operation Time Machine is aimed at reducing gun and gang violence, deterring illegal possession of guns, ammunition and body armor, and improving the safety of residents in Port Arthur, Texas. Participants in the initiative include community members and organizations as well as federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

This case was investigated by the ATF and the Port Arthur Police Department and prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Baylor Wortham.

ATF and Indianapolis Police, Fire Departments Team Up

Contact: Special Agent Kim Riddell For Immediate Release

ATF Public Information Officer Sept. 15, 2010

(614) 827-8474 www.atf.gov

ATF and Indianapolis Police, Fire Departments Team Up

Task Force Will Enhance Resources and Coordination

Indianapolis - The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the

Department of Public Safety’s divisions Indianapolis Fire Investigations Section (IFIS) and

Indianapolis Police (IMPD) have formed a task force focused on investigating fire and explosive

incidents. The task force formalizes the longstanding partnership of ATF and IFIS and provides

additional federal resources and potential funding to IFIS. ATF and IFIS recognize the benefit of

combining resources, intelligence and personnel to better serve the expanding Indianapolis

Metropolitan area.

ATF resources include an Indianapolis based Special Agent with expertise in fire

investigations. This Special Agent Certified Fire Investigator possesses many years of fire

investigation experience and serves on the elite ATF National Response Team which responds to

major fire and explosives incidents throughout the nation. Additionally, an Indianapolis based

Special Agent Certified Explosives Specialists, Explosives Enforcement Officer and a Special

Agent Certified Explosives Specialist K-9 handler support the task force with their expertise in

explosives, explosives incidents, and post blast scene investigation.

The IFIS is comprised of personnel from both the Indianapolis Fire Department (IFD)

and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), the Indianapolis Fire

Investigations Section is recognized as one of the premier Fire Investigation Sections in the

United States. IFD and IMPD each have assigned five members to the team. The members

working in teams are cross trained in fire and police disciplines. Cross training efficiency has

enabled the section to possess one of the highest arson clearance rates in the country. During

2010 the section has made 33 arrests and is on par with exceeding the 67 arson arrests in 2009.

The IFIS closed case rate is 1.5 times the national average.

“ATF is honored to join forces with the Indianapolis Fire Investigations Section. I expect

past investigative successes, such as the Daniel Annee arson for hire case, will continue and that

the task force will be a force multiplier working for a safe and secure community,” said Chris

Sadowski, Special Agent in Charge, ATF, Columbus Field Division.

“The partnership between ATF, IMPD and IFD provides a successful national model

demonstrating the importance of public safety partnerships in keeping our communities safe,”

said Public Safety Director Frank G. Straub.

-more“

We are proud of the work our Fire Investigations Section continues to do each and every

day. The IFD/IMPD partnership we have, has given our section the opportunity for its many

successes. We look forward to our working relationship with the ATF and the expertise and

experience they will bring to our program. We appreciate the opportunity to be on the cutting

edge of what could be the national model for arson sections across the country,” said Chief Brian

Sanford, Indianapolis Fire Department.

The ATF/IFIS task force will enhance and further investigations achieving even greater

success by multiplying manpower and resources. The task force will continue to utilize the latest

investigative methods including Touch DNA, incident mapping, suspect tracking and proactive

investigations.

How a cascade of errors led ATF to disaster at Waco. By: Larson, Erik, Time, 0040781X, 7/24/95, Vol. 146, Issue 4

PERHAPS THE HARSHEST CRITIC OF THE ATF'S WACO RAID was the bureau's own master, the Treasury Department. In the raid's aftermath, the department launched an investigation by veteran agents from its other law-enforcement agencies, backed up by independent outside reviewers, including Willie Williams, the Los Angeles chief of police. The result was a 500-page indictment that pulled no punches yet whose details, surprisingly, went largely unreported. The Blue Book, as it is known, portrayed a dark carnival of ATF errors. Among them:
ATF established an undercover house adjacent to the compound and installed eight agents there under the guise of students at Texas State Technical College. But they were too old to be convincing. They carried briefcases and drove cars too new and expensive for students to afford. Raid planners gravely underestimated David Koresh's savvy and suspicion--the review team discovered that Koresh had had checks run on the cars and found that three of the four had no credit liens outstanding.
The raid planners had chosen a direct assault in part because they believed Koresh never left the Branch Davidian compound, and thus could never be isolated from his followers. But Koresh did leave the compound--several times in late 1992 and only weeks before the February 1993 raid. ATF just never knew it. The report blamed this on its "failure to establish an effective intelligence operation."
Faulty intelligence also led ATF to believe the Branch Davidians kept their guns under lock and key in a central location. In fact, the guns were distributed and readily available. Likewise, ATF agents responsible for surveillance reported the compound had no sentries. It did.
Eleven days before the Feb. 28 raid, ATF ended surveillance of the compound. Several of the bureau's tactical planners said they didn't learn of this gap until members of the Treasury review team told them about it.
Raid planners believed only 75 people lived at the compound. In fact, 125 were present on Feb. 28.
ATF's plan relied on catching most of the compound's male members at work in a large pit on the grounds. Yet the highest number ATF ever recorded in the pit at one time was 13.
The raid planners expected armed resistance from only male Branch Davidians, and possibly one woman, a former police officer. The review states, "They [the agents] studiously ignored or discounted evidence that other women might also be prepared for armed resistance."
"The raid commanders did not even arrange to have the telephone number for the compound on the day of the raid," the report says. In the midst of the gun battle, an agent did find the number-jotted on a calendar in the undercover house.
At one point, an ATF agent posing as a United Parcel Service trainee accompanied a UPS driver during a delivery to the compound, but the act failed to be convincing. The truck stopped first at an outlying building, where the ATF agent insisted that the driver ask Koresh's followers to let them use the phone and a bathroom, something that a UPS driver wouldn't ordinarily do. This accomplished, they then moved on to the compound itself to try the same plan again. This time, Koresh and another member, David Jones, met them at the gate. Jones was carrying a roll of toilet paper.
PHOTO (COLOR): As if unaware of its own disastrous role in the Waco tragedy, ATF raised its flag over the charred Mount Carmel compound
~~~~~~~~
By ERIK LARSON