Inside the Award-Winning "Fast and Furious" Investigation
March 30, 2013— -- The Peabody Awards were just announced this week, and our colleagues at the Univision News investigative unit were among the recipientes for their in-depth coverage of the gun-walking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious. The botched operation, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), allowed suspected gun smugglers to acquire arms in the United States so they could be traced to Mexican drug cartels.
Univision's hour-long documentary focused on the consequences of the ATF's operation outside the U.S., and more specifically on the repercussions across the Mexican border.
WATCH: A 10-minute English version of the investigation, plus extra written material here.
In this video above, we asked the investigative unit's director, Gerardo Reyes, and reporter/producer Tomás Ocaña to explain to us the process of their investigation, which took three months, and their biggest challenges making it.
Here are some basics on their investigation:
Important Findings
The Univision News team uncovered 57 previously unidentified firearms linked to Operation Fast and Furious. The guns were recovered in sites associated with murders, kidnappings and at least two gruesome massacres in Mexico.
Big Repercussions in Congress
A month after the documentary aired in September of last year, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) pressed the Department of Justice to provide information about the weapons that were exposed by the team's investigation.
SEE ALSO: Five things you didn't know about 'Operation Fast and Furious'
The documentary was produced by Ocaña, Margarita Rabin, Casto Ocando, Vytenis Didziulis, with reporting by Maria Antonieta Collins, Tifani Roberts, Mariana Atencio and Gerardo Reyes. The documentary was presented by Jorge Ramos for Univision's "Aqui y Ahora," whose executive producer is Jairo Marin. Special thanks to Santiago Wills, who translated a lot of the material into English so we could publish it here on ABC/Univision. Congrats to all!
