The Deadly Path: How Operation Fast & Furious and Bad Lawyers Armed Mexican Cartels

by Peter J. Forcelli, Keelin MacGregor, Stephen Murphy (foreword)

Pete Forcelli did what members of the U.S. Congress encourage government employees to he spoke up when he saw misconduct within the federal government. But choosing to be a whistleblower almost cost Forcelli his job, his possessions, and his reputation as a law enforcement official.

“In a raw and unflinching account that details his harrowing journey as whistleblower in the Fast and Furious federal scandal, Forcelli shows the public and personal cost of standing up for justice.”
—Jonathan Green, author of Sex Money A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal

Pete Forcelli was a highly respected federal agent in New York City, where he made an impact on violent crime by successfully targeting some of the city’s most violent street gangs by using federal racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise statutes in conjunction with federal prosecutors. In early 2007, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Phoenix and quickly discovered that federal prosecutors were not charging criminals for violating federal firearms laws, even in instances where they knew guns were being trafficked to ultra-violent drug cartels and then used in crimes that were shocking to the conscience.

When those very same prosecutors spoke about possibly indicting John Dodson, a special agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious, Forcelli stepped forward and contacted Congress. Forcelli became a whistleblower himself, detailing how federal prosecutors in Arizona not only failed to prosecute gun traffickers, but allowed a man who was making hundreds of hand grenades for the Sinaloa Cartel to continue his operations unabated for years. At that moment, those prosecutors and officials from the Department of Justice came after him, leading to a nearly four-year battle for Forcelli to clear his name.

This book provides his insider’s account of the scandal that stands as one of the worst stains on federal law enforcement.

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2024

Reviews

[Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of one brave man’s willingness to step forward and expose the ineptitude of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona which ultimately led to the disastrous “Operation Fast and Furious” in which a vast number of illegally purchased guns were allowed to flow into Mexico. Who knows what the toll in human lives has been because of that? Well-written and fast-paced, the reader comes away with a much better understanding of just what went wrong and the dysfunction that is endemic in the bureaucracy of our government.

[John Converse · Rating 5 out of 5]

No politics in this book. The author was exposed to Fast and Furious from a street perspective. He suggests that the start of the goat rope occurred due to ineptitude and ambition in the Phoenix ATF Division and an appalling laziness and ignorance by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Despite what happened to hi, throughout his career (especially during Fast and Furious), he maintains a positive view of the vast majority of ATF agents, their managers, and gun dealers.

[Patrick Flannelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tracked this story with great interest when it broke because I was working in a task force at the time. It was another case of a questionable idea leading down the wrong path, and as Peter Forcelli aptly named his book, A Deadly Path. This book should serve as a cautionary tale for law enforcement leaders everywhere about the need for strong and competent leadership.

But what I didn't expect from this book was the backstory behind the man himself. A detective in the NYPD who was at ground zero on 9/11, and now a cancer survivor.

This book is a testament to resilience, faith, and the drive to do the "right thing."

A must-read!