Jamie Zapata Gunned Down in Mexico By: Benjamin Worthen http://www.netgunsmith.

com/2012/02/jamie_zapata_gunned_down_mexico/

Operation Fast and Furious

One year ago, Jamie Zapata was shot dead in his car on a dangerous stretch of highway in Mexico. In the midst of the decade long Baja war, stories like this are all too common, but two basic aspects of this particular story makes it stick out a bit more than those about just another kid mixed up with the Mexican Mafia, or Mara Salvatrucha, or one of the many cartels. Jamie Zapata was a special agent with I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and the first fatality in over 25 years for the agency in the area. Thats not even the most disturbing part of this story. By all accounts, Jamie Zapata should be alive still. He was attacked on a busy highway and forced to the side, where as a result of a horrible and preventable fluke, one of the six AK-47s 7.62x39 rounds he was hit with, pierced the side of his femoral artery. Zapata bled out while waiting for backup. But thats where this story becomes incredibly well attenuated to the Net Gunsmith cause and that of the readership: Zapata was unarmed, and inside of an almost $200,000 armored suburban, made to prevent this type of situation from being fatal. Mexico does not allow firearms to be carried by agents from the United States in positions like Zapatas, and the incredible armored vehicle he was driving in was fatally flawed. Along the route; a dangerous one, full of rival gang activity, between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, drug trafficking rivals in the region; it wasnt long after their stop at a local Subway for lunch, that Zapata and his partner Avila realized they were being followed closely by 2 SUVs with 8 men in them. Flash back to Zapatas first day of work in Mexico, some 8 days earlier, assuming his workload would be nothing more than the expected desk job he told his family about (two brothers were I.C.E. agents); his parents were across the Texas border anxious about his assignment. It was unclear why he was on his way to Mexico City in a car without an escort, and despite the pending investigation, an outsider can only point out the little mistakes and bad luck that combined to make this a tragic ending to a story. The highway they were traveling on is known for its abundance of thugs, traffickers, and gunslingers from Los Zetas, not to mention the other area heavyweights. Shortly after their lunch, the two aggressive drivers of the gang SUVs put Avila and Zapata into a very bad situation. While it is unclear the reason the agents eventually stopped and why they werent more aggressive themselves, one thing is clear. The system had failed them as soon as they put the vehicle into park. Cornered, and brought to a stop, Zapata and Avila probably felt somewhat

safe in the vehicle, phoning the embassy in Mexico City, to support them as they were without defensive weapons. As Zapata crawled to a stop and put the car in park, probably attempting to wait out the situation, the car doors unlocked automatically. Its a standard programming code in the hardware of the vehicle, and unfortunately it would lead to the death of Jamie Zapata. Around 100 rounds were shot into the vehicle, of those about 10 were shot through a barely open window, inadvertently activated in a struggle to close the door and seal out the aggressive assailants. The other 90 some odd shots or so never made it into the cabin, the car at least had done one of its jobs properly. But had something so mundane and simple as a consumer friendly automatic unlocking code caused such a tragic climax to the situation? Now, if I was the Washington Post, or the New York times, or even BBC, the story would then take a turn towards corporate liability and away from the focus its about to take. But Im Benjamin Worthen, a staunch conservative disturbed by the hypocritical policies of our Government agencies, and critical of the mainstream media that glosses over salient truths to journey down less impactful paths. To me, and my readership, what is about to be explained is at the heart of this controversy. The AK-47 that killed one of the U.S.s special agents, (forced to work in dangerous territory and act as an unarmed courier of important intelligence on behalf of the agency and cooperative Mexican agencies) and the laws that threaten to allow unbelievable hypocrisy to permeate the federal landscape, all potentially got their start on home soil.

AKs in the hands of the enemy

The gun was tracked back to a pawn shop in Beaumont, Texas called J&Js, a Romanian variant of the AK-47 smuggled into Mexico by a U.S. citizen named Manuel Gomez Barba, a Zeta connected smuggler of Crystal Meth. Operation Fast and Furious may have some tie to this horrific incident, and while nothing gives me pleasure more than seeing the ATF with a bit more egg on their face for violating and making a mockery of their own mandates, it gives me no pleasure to shake my head at them in the wake of the death of Agent Zapata. While guns were walking into the hands of men like those involved in this incident, the ATF was looking the other way, supposedly posturing for a better position to handle the overall situation with the War on Drugs. In what some could consider an attempt at providing a bit of solace, some agents close to the investigation are saying now that its well known that despite laws to the contrary, Avila and Zapata were in fact armed that day, and were simply outmatched ballistically. But in all honesty, it sounds more like a high level bit of damage control. What will happen in the end? Probably a slap on the wrist for the government contractor BAE systems who provided the armored vehicle without the remastered unlock codes; a quiet exit by the ATF for its potential role in the slaying, and a rigidly pointed finger aimed squarely at the Drug Cartels who performed the killing. In the end, a man is dead, for whom, justice will likely never be fully served, and for whose family, questions will always remain unanswered because its too far above the investigators pay grade to learn of the true catalysts behind this disgusting act of humanity.

Speaking as to the horrible and unpredictable unlocking of the doors, Republican McCaul a Tex Representative said this: (If it had not been forthe doors unlocking) Zapata may still be alive today While true, it avoids confronting the bigger issue here: American involvement in the region, stymied by the lack of firepower, and confronted with the possibility that their own Government has sold them out to put them under fire by thugs carrying heavier weaponry than should be allowed to walk through the ATFs oversight without being pulled back in. Its really a matter of what is TOO far? At what point is a human life of no importance to the Government that they serve? Questions remain unanswered at every level, and meanwhile, the Justice Department and ATF skate by, and Eric Holder gets paid to give speeches at Universities which hail him as a savior walking on waves in the sea of detritus. Lee Bollinger President of Columbia University, in an introduction to Holder before a speech, said this: In Eric Holder, we have an attorney general who is not afraid of the hard choices that must be made to pursue justice and fulfill our founding ideals.

The Founding Ideals

Surely the founding ideals of this great country did not include sacrificing innocent customs agents and second amendment rights so a Government can pocket some drug cartel money and bargain for positioning against a rouge enterprise outside of our borders? Or maybe I just got the constitution wrong?

Guns dont kill people

Guns dont kill people, the ATF and DOJ giving guns to drug cartels kills people. If anything, this story of two brave I.C.E. agents is testament to the messed up country we now live in.

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