Feb. 2, 2011

On Jan. 25, 2011, the Department of Justice unveiled a major crackdown on gunrunning from Arizona to Mexico, indicting dozens of suspected members of a trafficking operation that authorities say involved more than 700 guns. Once again, the WASR-10, a Romanian AK-47, and its U.S. based importer, Century International Arms, are prominent in the mix of guns surfacing at crime scenes in Mexico.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives [ATF], the new investigation -- dubbed "Operation Fast & Furious" -- recovered 195 guns in Mexico [PDF] tied to the trafficking network. The Investigative Reporting Workshop and FRONTLINE have identified 37 guns seized in Mexico and purchased by individuals named in the indictments, using information obtained from government reports. Twenty-nine of those guns, or nearly 80 percent, were either imported or manufactured by Century. Sixteen were WASR-10's, including nine recovered on Dec. 12, 2009, in a Mexicali warehouse along with $2.1 million, 421 kilos of cocaine and 60 kilos of methamphetamine.