Fast & the Furious and money laundering -- The U.S. tries to solve Mexican drug cartel crisis with plots from action movies

While relaxing a few evenings ago, I reclined in my chair, turned on the nightly news and was stupefied by the broadcast. With more seriousness than the Queen Mum, the Talking Head reported the United States is accused of laundering drug cartel money.
Say what? Is this an episode of "Weeds" or we talking about the United States of America, my home sweet home? Should I pinch myself?
We've all heard about the major drug war going on south of the border ... well heard about it from the standpoint of: "oh-that's-awful-luckily-I-live-far-far-far-away-and-can-shake-my-head-in-disgust-from-my-lovely-American-living-room-while-I-think-of-those-nutty-cholos-and-get-hungry-for-Mexican-food-and-a-Corono-with-lime." We've seen pictures of the violence, people hanging on nooses, decapitations, etc.
But this is totally absurd.
First there were reports of the Fast and the Furious -- no, not the movie. I'm talking about the botched operation by the Phoenix office of the ATF where officials encouraged gun shops to sell up to 1,725 assault rifles and other weapons destined for Mexican drug cartels. Why you ask? Isn't it obvious? Use the gun runners to track down ranking members of the drug cartels and other criminal enterprises. Duh. No, of course this doesn't sound like a James Bond film or episode of 24. Of course not ... Did it work? Well some of the guns were used in murders so, not really.
To make a long story short, Fast & the Furious was revealed and of course it was vehemently denied, of course! Finally, Attorney General Eric Holder admitted it was true. This was shocking enough but now it's happened again with this money laundering shit. The federal government is hot to solve this Mexican drug cartel circus so members of the DEA laundered and/or smuggled millions of bucks in drug proceeds. Reasoning: track down those pesky high ranking drug cartel members.
This doesn't sound real, does it? When I heard about this money laundering b.s. the other night my mind raced. Haven't we been told movies aren't real? Those TV shows with cops and private investigators, those aren't real. They sexify it for ratings, so people will watch. Silly rabbit, Jack Bauer isn't going to bust down doors and scream in peoples faces about how time is running out. James Bond isn't going to screw a bunch of hot chicks and sneak around. But the U.S. promoting the sale of guns to drug cartels and laundering their money ... that sounds like a future blockbuster!
What the hell is going on? Yeah, some major drug cartel players have been killed but guess what? No, not chicken butt. You kill one, second in command steps up and so on and so forth. Has the U.S. government become so hopeless they are relying on plots from action movies? From Jack Bauer and James Bond? I don't have any answers but that's why I didn't run for office.