**HOLD FOR RELEASE/FOR PAULINE ARRILLAGA NATIONAL STORY/HOLD FOR PATRICK SISSON** Peck Canyon is shown Tuesday, June 7, 2011 near Nogales, Ariz. By the time the two assault rifles were found in a swath of desert scrub in Peck Canyon, by the time an ex-Marine-turned-Border Patrol agent lay dying in the mesquite on a December night, the investigation known as “Fast and Furious” had been going on for some 15 months. Already, more than 1,500 weapons had been bought by straw purchasers accused of procuring guns on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. Already, at least 40 suspects had been identified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and its Phoenix-based investigative group, the Group VII Strike Force. (AP Photo/Matt York)
