<p style="font-size: 14px;"><img src="images/stories/logo-foxnews.png" border="0" alt="Fox News" hspace="7" align="left" />The investigation of Operation Fast and Furious escalated this past week as Fox News learned a leak at the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/us/justice-department.htm#r_src=ramp">Justice Department</a> is providing documents to the Congressional investigators.</p>
<p style="font-size: 14px;">The scope of investigation also includes the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/us/federal-bureau-of-investigation.htm#r_src=ramp">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a>, which records show failed to tell ATF its own confidential informants were helping finance the illegal gun purchases.</p>
<p style="font-size: 14px;">Eduardo and Jesus A. Miramontes-Varela, Mexican nationals born in Juarez worked for the Sinaloa Cartel when they became informants for the FBI in 2009, according to sources.</p>
<p style="font-size: 14px;">Previously, the brothers, ages 36 and 37, worked as informants for police in Miami, the U.S. Marshall's Service, and the DEA.</p>
<p style="font-size: 14px;">According to DEA and Congressional reports, the two men were the primary cartel contacts used to finance the illegal gun trafficking ring. Jim Needles, the assistant Agent in Charge of the Phoenix ATF office estimated the brothers spent $250,000 on guns tracked by his agency while conducting Operation Fast and Furious. Needles called it “a disappointment” the FBI didn’t bother to tell his agency of the connection.<br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/24/operation-fast-and-furious-investigation-escalates-justice-department-faulted/#ixzz1qB3y6EUv" style="color: #003399;">http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/24/operation-fast-and-furious-investigation-escalates-justice-department-faulted/#ixzz1qB3y6EUv</a></p>