The new acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pledged Tuesday to continue a crackdown on firearms trafficking from the United States to Mexico - despite embarrassing revelations about an ATF gun probe on the Southwest border.
B. Todd Jones, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, was appointed about seven weeks ago as acting ATF director. He was in Chicago for a convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Jones, who will remain U.S. attorney in Minneapolis as he runs ATF, said he's been busy dealing with the fallout over Operation Fast and Furious, a subject of inquiries by Congress and the Justice Department.
Beginning in 2009, ATF agents allowed licensed gun dealers to sell weapons to illegal "straw purchasers" in an effort to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders. Yet the agents reportedly lost track of more than 2,000 firearms.
Earlier this month, Jones announced several high-level ATF management changes linked to the scandal. But in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, he said the inquiries into Fast and Furious won't hinder gun cases.
"There was firearms trafficking going on from the United States to Mexico before this case went awry," Jones said. "And there will be going forward. Our job as a law enforcement agency is to do the best job we can to disrupt and dismantle organizations and individuals who are engaged in that business. And that's not going to stop."
Jones is the latest in a string of acting directors to run ATF since 2006, when Senate confirmation for the director's job was required for the first time.
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