PHOENIX (AP) -
An admitted straw buyer was
sentenced to nearly four years in prison for his part in a gun smuggling ring
that was targeted in the botched investigation known as Operation Fast and
Furious.
Julio Jose Carrillo was
sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison for his guilty plea this summer to a
charge of dealing in firearms without a license.
Carrillo had admitted to buying
41 guns for the ring and falsely claiming that guns he bought were for him,
when he actually purchased them for an alleged ring leader.
Federal authorities have faced
tough criticism for allowing suspected straw gun buyers for the ring to walk
away from gun shops in Arizona with weapons, rather than arrest the suspects
and seize the guns there.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights
reserved.
