there is one key difference between operation wide receiver & operation fast & furious. wide receiver never allowed a tracked weapon to leave USA, whereas fast & furious did and resulted in a death of an agent with a tracked f&f weapon.
Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
Tracked Guns made their way into Mexico under "Operation Wide Receiver". The two major differences between "Operation Wide Receiver" and "Fast and Furious" were with "Fast and Furious" The ATF agents from the Arizona field office removed the tracking devices. The other difference was the ATF agents did not tell the Mexican government that they had started a second "Gun Walking" program. The Arizona ATF agents were NOT instructed by the administration to not use Tracking devices and not tell the Mexican government of a second program.
From the link:
The first known ATF "gunwalking" operation to Mexican drug cartels, named Operation Wide Receiver, began in early 2006 and ran into late 2007. Licensed dealer Mike Detty of Mad Dawg Global informed the ATF of a suspicious gun purchase that took place in February 2006 in
Tucson, Arizona. In March he was hired as a confidential informant working with the ATF's Tucson office, part of their Phoenix, Arizona field division.
[31]
With the use of surveillance equipment, ATF agents monitored additional sales by Detty to straw purchasers. With assurance from ATF "that Mexican officials would be conducting surveillance or interdictions when guns got to the other side of the border",
[12] Detty would sell a total of about 450 guns during the operation.
[30] These included
AR-15s, semi-automatic AK-pattern rifles, and Colt .38s. The majority of the guns were eventually lost as they moved into Mexico.
[6][31][32][33]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal