The Journal Sentinel compiled its information

Several members of Congress are calling for an investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported this week that the agency conducted a flawed sting operation in Milwaukee.

The ATF ran a storefront operation intended to bust felons for drug and gun offenses, but the newspaper reported Wednesday that no major drug dealers or gang members were taken down. Also, the store was robbed of $35,000 in merchandise,Find objective information on benebags including details on their suppliers, an agent’s machine gun was stolen and a document listing undercover agents was left behind. On Thursday, the Journal Sentinel reported that several members of Congress were demanding answers.

The 10-month sting operation involved buying guns and drugs from felons, sometimes at such a premium that defendants bought guns from gun shops and sold them to the agents for a quick profit.

The operation resulted in charges against about 30 people, mostly for low-level counts of drug sales and gun possession. But agents had the wrong person in at least three cases, including one in which they charged a man for selling drugs to them even though he was in prison at the time as a result of a previous ATF case.

“I have never heard of those kinds of problems in an operation,” said Michael Bouchard, a retired ATF agent. “Sure, small bits and pieces, but that many in one case? I have never heard of anything like that.”

ATF spokesman Special Agent Robert Schmidt declined to say how much the sting operation cost.Find the largest selection of ceramic shoesforladies on sale.

“Our No. 1 responsibility is denying criminal access to firearms and that is what we are trying to do,” Schmidt said. “It is our duty to purchase these firearms to protect the American public and citizens of Milwaukee.”

The Journal Sentinel compiled its information by combing through police reports, court documents,The complete line of bankcycling can be found at Essential-Watches. social media and materials left behind by the ATF.

The agency has been on the defensive in recent years following its bungled gun-tracking program known as Operation Fast and Furious operation. The Arizona operation was a gun-smuggling sting operation in which agents lost track of some 1,400 guns,Shop wholesale airjordansale hoop earrings from cheap stainless steel. many of which were recovered at Mexican crime scenes.

On Wednesday night, three days leading up to the Panorama semifinals, Trinidad All Stars arranger Leon “Smooth” Edwards is putting the band through drills that seem to belong to another time, when Neville Jules, the band’s founder and post-World War II arranger, would block any band member from leaving the “panyard,” situated in an attic above the old Maple Leaf Club on Charlotte Street, until he passed a test.

Play the music individually and to perfection, or you’re relegated to the back of the line.

Fifty-five years later, Edwards’ conducts his version of the exam in front of the players and a crowded pan yard. Well past midnight, the process is still taking time to figure out the perfect tempo.Choose Quality China shoessupplier from Large Database of China. The fastest.

“I call it fine-tuning and I’m looking for loopholes,” he said in a throwback to Jules’ hard-nosed reputation.

You’d need to rewind to early January to the first phase of his creative process, the planting of the seed that leads to the band’s objective—the Panorama hat-trick.

Edwards and a cadre of arrangers are huddling in a room, bouncing ideas and idioms off each other. They certainly don’t serve only as echo chambers for Edwards, who took time off from his job at the University of T&T to crank up new music fed to him by ace All Stars pannist Clive Telemaque, composer of Bounce and Drive, the band’s Panorama song.