Heads roll after ATF debacle

The Federal agency that botched the tracking of weapons smuggled to Mexican drug cartels has been reorganised after guns were able to flow freely over the border.

Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives since 2009, was reassigned after admitting mistakes in a sting operation intended to prevent weapons from US stores reaching violent Mexican gangs.

A US Border Patrol agent died in a shootout in December 2010, and two guns found at the scene have been traced to the sting.