Firearms from botched US sting linked to Mexican drug killings

AT least 122 firearms from a botched US undercover operation have been found at crime scenes in Mexico or intercepted en route to drug cartels there, according to a Republican congressional report issued last night.

Mexican authorities found AK-47 assault rifles, powerful .50 calibre rifles and other weapons in late 2009 that were later linked to the US sting operation to trace weapons going across the border to Mexico, the report said.

Guns from the programme, dubbed Operation Fast and Furious, also were found at the scene of the murder of a US Border Patrol agent in the border state Arizona last December. It is not clear if they were the weapons responsible for his death.