CBS' Sharyl Atkkisson re-emerges: "Grenadewalker" exposed.

[SteveM]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/earlyshow/main20120395.shtml

On CBS' Early Show, Sharyl Atkkisson reports that a U.S. citizen has been involved with the manufacture of hundreds of hand grenades, a favorite weapon of Mexico's cartels.

"CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who has reported on this story from the beginning, said on 'The Early Show' that the investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)'s so-called 'Fast and Furious' operation branches out to a case involving grenades. Sources tell her a suspect was left to traffic and manufacture them for Mexican drug cartels.

"Police say Jean Baptiste Kingery, a U.S. citizen, was a veritable grenade machine. He's accused of smuggling parts for as many as 2,000 grenades into Mexico for killer drug cartels -- sometimes under the direct watch of U.S. law enforcement."

But there appears to be a hitch in detaining/arresting Kingery...

"Law enforcement sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted in the U.S. twice for violating export control laws, but that, each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case."

Some of the BATFE agents tried to do the right thing...

"One ATF agent told investigators he literally begged prosecutors to keep Kingery in custody this time, fearing he was supplying narco-terrorists, but was again ordered to let Kingery go."

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Kingery was evidently making the grenades in parts, and smuggling them to Mexico. According the the report, the parts were considered "novelty" items, and "lacked sex appeal" for prosecutors.