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PHOENIX — A woman who admitted to aiding a gun smuggling ring that was monitored in the government's botched investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious was sentenced Monday in Phoenix to five years of probation.
Kristi Gail Ireland faced up to five years in prison after she pleaded guilty in June to aiding and abetting the crime of making false statements in a gun purchase.
Ireland admitted that she accompanied an alleged ring member in 2010 to a gun shop for a buy, carried $18,000 in her purse for the purchase and knew that the alleged ring member lied when making the purchase.
Federal authorities faced criticism for allowing suspected straw gun buyers to walk away from shops with weapons, rather than arrest the suspects and seize the guns there.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
