The deadly path How Operation Fast & Furious and bad lawyers armed Mexican cartels

Forcelli, a former deputy assistant director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and journalist MacGregor (coauthor of Jane Doe #9) offer a disturbing insider account of the scandal surrounding the ATF's weapons-trafficking investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious. After joining the ATF in 2001, Forcelli relocated to Arizona in 2007 to serve as a supervisor in Phoenix, where he encountered an office in disarray (many supervisors had been sent to work from home; one was even working as a salsa instructor in Colombia). Moving quickly to bolster morale, he encountered a major roadblock: prosecutors were oddly uninterested in pursuing gun cases. Over time, he came to realize that the ATF had lost track of more than 800 guns through Fast and Furious, an operation meant to trace illegal firearms as they crossed into Mexico so that the buyers could be arrested. Forcelli ultimately blew the whistle during a congressional investigation, which revealed that none of the operation's intended cartel targets had been arrested, while the missing guns were being trafficked back into the U.S. Full of unsettling details (after the attempted assassination of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Forcelli's agents "crossed their fingers" that the gun couldn't be traced back to their operation), this is an eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at government malfeasance. (Mar.)

An ATF whistleblower tells his story. With firearms strictly controlled in their country, Mexican drug cartels purchase illegal American arms smuggled across the border. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is charged with stopping the flow. Forcelli, a veteran New York City police detective, transferred to the ATF in 2001, became a supervisor, and then moved to Phoenix in 2007. Much of this memoir, co-written with MacGregor, is an entertaining account of ATF agents at work. Mostly, gun smugglers patronize legitimate gun dealers in the U.S., and the process of smuggling them into Mexico is relatively easy because Mexican border officials know better than to aggressively search for them. Although gun dealers have a bad reputation, the author emphasizes that almost all are honest. Many provide the ATF with highly valuable informants, calling whenever a buyer seems suspicious. But soon after arriving at his new job, Forcelli made a jolting discovery. In New York, ATF agents and federal prosecutors work in harmony; on the southern border, his agents would make arrests and present strong cases, only to have the prosecutors reject them for flimsy reasons over and over. Offering cases to the state prosecutor or local police sometimes helped, but the stubborn refusal of the federal prosecution office was demoralizing. Fed up, Forcelli informed his congressional representative and became a whistleblower. Hearings and media attention followed. Since then, matters in Arizona have improved, although many offenders remain in their positions. Whistleblowers are often portrayed as heroes in the media and Hollywood, but, as the author shows, their lives are often ruined. They pay enormous legal fees, usually lose their jobs and many friends, and suffer retaliation that persists indefinitely. More fortunate than most, although Forcelli left Arizona, he remained at the ATF until his retirement a few years later. A compelling account of a risky border operation and a half-forgotten scandal. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.