How Did a Gun Belonging to Ex-ATF Official End Up at Fast and Furious-Linked Crime Scene in Mexico?

FN Five-Seven semi-automatic pistol (shootingillustrated.com)

A gun belonging to a former assistant special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was found at a Mexican crime scene where five people were killed in a shootout, including a Sinaloa beauty queen, FoxNews.com reports.

The crime scene is also mysteriously linked to the disastrous federal gun-walking operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. On Tuesday, it was reported that a semi-automatic rifle from Fast and Furious was found at the same location.

Now, congressional investigators in Phoenix want to know why an FN Five-Seven semi-automatic pistol belonging to an ex-ATF official was recovered at the scene of a Nov. 23 gunfight between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Mexican military. The FN Five-Seven is a high-powered handgun originally intended only for military and law enforcement.

FoxNews.com has more details:

Records show the gun was purchased in January 2010 by George Gillett, the former No. 2 in the ATF office in Phoenix. Gillett now works at ATF headquarters in Washington as a liaison to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Gillett purchased the weapon at Legendary Arms, a Phoenix gun store. On the federal form 4473 used to buy the gun, Gillett used the ATF office address, 201 East Washington, and said "Apt 940." On subsequent purchase, Gillett used a commercial address, that of a strip mall.

Both actions are illegal, since ATF regulations require buyers use their residential address.

"Lying on form 4473 is a felony and can be punished by up to five years in prison in addition to fines," Sen. Charles Grassley said in a letter Wednesday to Michael Horowitz in the Office of Inspector General. "I request that you initiate an investigation into these matters and that you specifically examine whether Mr. Gillett was the purchaser as indicated by these documents, why the forms list multiple, inaccurate residential addresses while purchasing the weapons, and how the weapon purchased on January 7, 2010 ended up in Mexico."

The gun in question was recovered in Sinaloa after a shootout between the Mexican military and the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which resulted in the death of Mexican beauty queen Maria Susana Gamez.

In this April 26, 2012 photo, Maria Susana Flores Gamez poses for a photo for a story about her upcoming participation in a beauty pageant in China, in Culiacan, Mexico. Credit: AP

"Why would the assistant in charge of that office be buying guns in the first place?" Grassley told Fox News.

The other weapon found at the Mexican crime scene was traced back to a Uriel Patino, who purchased roughly 600 guns during Operation Fast and Furious -- run out of the Phoenix office of the ATF, the same Phoenix office where Gillett worked.

"That would raise the question of the extent to which that person might be involved in the gun trafficking that was going on and profiting from it. ... These are legitimate questions."

"[Gillett] has confirmed in other news interviews that he bought the gun, saying he later sold it on the Internet," the report states.