Wichita part of report criticizing ATF storefront gun-sale stings

Federal agents lacked proper guidance and experience while conducting undercover sting operations in Milwaukee and several other cities – including Wichita – since 2010 that were aimed at disrupting illegal gun sales, according to a U.S. Justice Department report released Thursday.

The Justice Department’s inspector general’s office report examined shortcomings with U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ storefront sting operations in Wichita; Milwaukee; Pensacola, Fla.; St. Louis; and Boston.

The operations were designed to curb illegal gun trafficking by luring people with illegal weapons into the store, where agents could identify them, buy their guns to get the weapons off the street, and trace the guns’ histories. According to the report, the ATF established 53 storefront operations throughout the country between 2004 and 2013.

ATF operated an undercover storefront in Wichita from Nov. 30, 2010, to Sept. 20, 2011, according to the report. The storefront, which “masqueraded primarily as a clothing store,” was in a small strip mall close to downtown Wichita, the report said.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an expose in 2013 detailing some of the problems with the storefront operation conducted in that city. It found that agents overpaid for guns with taxpayer money, that guns were stolen from an ATF vehicle and that the storefront was burglarized.

Most defendants were charged with low-level offenses, and the operation failed to capture any major criminals.

What’s more, agents left behind an operational plan at the store when they shut it down. The document included undercover agents’ names, vehicle descriptions, cellphone numbers and secret signals.

The new inspector general’s report found that the storefront sting operations’ problems were caused primarily by poor management and insufficient training and guidance for field agents. A lax culture that failed to emphasize managing risks also played a role.

It also found that agents lacked adequate policies and supervision. ATF assigned inexperienced agents to run and supervise the operations and shifted them around without adequate support from the bureau’s headquarters, which didn’t pay enough attention to how it was running the operations.

The report called on the ATF to consolidate its expertise in running storefront operations and said such stings shouldn’t proceed unless ATF headquarters agrees that they’re properly designed and executed.

The report includes an August letter from ATF Deputy Director Thomas Brandon promising to concur with all the recommendations. But he stressed that the five operations the report reviewed prevented more than 780 guns from entering illegal commerce and resulted in charging recommendations against 120 people.

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 10:34 AM with the headline "Wichita part of report criticizing ATF storefront gun-sale stings."