Operation "Fast and Furious" flops as the ATF allows over 1,765 documented weapons to leave gun stores in the U.S. headed for Mexican cartels at war with the government.  So far only 765 of the known weapons were recovered by Mexican authorities.  

Failing to staunch this constant flow of weapons the State department admits that it did not prevent several US gun retailers from arming the cartels, generally selling thousands of weapons illegally to the cartels every year, and in this recent case under the watchful eye of the ATF.  

According to statistics over 70% of all weapons used by the cartels come from the US, and almost 100% of the governments weapons also come from US domestic gun makers.  

These combined sales have generated  massive profits for weapons manufacturers over the last decade with little to no impact on prevention of proliferation by any law enforcement agency North of the border, including the ATF, FBI, or DEA.

Congress is now attempting to investigate the uncooperative agency  after recent  revelations that it allowed gun traffickers to purchase their weapons in the US and then "lost track" of both the weapons and traffickers in Mexico.  Weapons that were later recovered after being used in homicides against law enforcement and the public.

This "mistake"  injected thousands of arms and millions of rounds of ammunition  into the illegal weapons market south of the border, fueling a war that has cost the lives of over 30,000 people since the Mexican President Felipe Calderon came to office in 2006.

According to Congressman Daryl Issa the ATF remains uncooperative and defiant in the face of massive criticism and questions from both US and Mexican government institutions as to 'why' and 'how' such an egregious error by the agency could occur in spite of multiple barriers put in place to prevent the illegal gun running.