Feds don't want El Chapo's jury to hear about botched 'Fast and Furious' sting that let guns flow over border

Prosecutors at El Chapo’s trafficking trial in Brooklyn are trying to shoot down any mention of the government’s botched “Fast and Furious” gun-running sting operation.

In a new motion filed Friday, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue argued defense lawyers should be banned from asking questions about the former program in which federal agents allowed illegal weapons to flow over the border to Mexico as part of a larger investigation.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) intended to trace the weapons and hopefully bust more people in an alleged gun-smuggling network linked to Mexican drug traffickers, but many of the weapons were ultimately lost.

A high-powered .50 caliber rifle tied to “Fast and Furious” was later found at a hideout used by El Chapo in 2016.

Prosecutors believe Chapo, whose real name is Joaquín Guzmán Loera, and his lawyers want to introduce testimony about the program to embarrass law enforcement and divert blame.

“Given the amount of negative reporting on the Operation, it was not difficult for the government to predict that the defense would attempt to distract and confuse the jury by referencing the Operation during trial,” Donoghue wrote to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan.

“The defense is attempting to use the well-known operation to place the government on trial,” he continued. “While the government will seek to introduce at trial seized weapons that had been identified by ATF agents within the scope of the Operation, any details about the Operation itself are completely irrelevant to the issues at trial.”

Judge Cogan did not immediately rule on the request.

Chapo’s trial entered its fifth week Monday with testimony from yet another cooperating witness who previously worked with the drug lord’s Sinaloa cartel.

Former trafficker Tirso Martinez described in detail how Chapo smuggled cocaine from Mexico to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles in tanker trains filled with vegetable oil that were first mentioned in testimony last week.

Chapo, 61, has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen charges related to drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and firearms.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted.