Nadir Soofi, one of the jihadists who attempted to massacre the attendees at the "Draw Muhammad" event in Garland, Texas earlier this year, had apparently bought a firearm five years ago that was part of former Attorney General Eric Holder's "Fast and Furious" debacle, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Soofi purchased the 9-millimeter handgun at a suburban Phoenix shop called Lone Wolf Trading Co., known among gun smugglers for selling illegal firearms. What he didn't know was that Lone Wolf was at the center of the Fast and Furious federal sting operation targeting Mexican drug lords and traffickers.

His purchase caught the attention of authorities, who for some reason allowed the purchase despite Soofi's history of misdemeanor drug and assault charges, and despite the false information he provided on the gun purchase form he filled out.

Then this May, Soofi and his roommate Elton Simpson, outfitted in body armor and heavily armed, attacked the Garland cartoonists' convention and wounded a security officer before being slain themselves by local police.

The next day the Department of Justice sent an "urgent firearms disposition request" to Lone Wolf, seeking more information about Soofi and the pistol he bought in 2010.

The FBI so far has refused to release any details, so it's unclear whether the gun sold during the botched Fast and Furious operation ended up being used in a terrorist attack against Americans. FBI Director James B. Comey earlier this month said, "We're still sorting that out."

As the Times notes,

At the time of the 2010 gun purchase, Soofi ran a Phoenix pizza parlor. His mother said that was about the same time he met Simpson, who worked for Soofi at the restaurant. They later shared an apartment...

Sharon Soofi said her son had told her he wanted the pistol for protection because his restaurant was in a "rough area." She said he also acquired an AK-47 assault rifle at the end of last year or early this year, when authorities believe he and Simpson were plotting an attack on the Super Bowl in Arizona.

"I tried to convince him that, what in the world do you need an AK-47 for?" she said in a telephone interview. Soofi told her they practiced target shooting in the desert. Her younger son, Ali Soofi, was living with his brother and Simpson at the time, she said, but left after becoming frightened by the weapons, ammunition and militant Islamist literature.

She blamed Simpson for radicalizing her son, who she said had no history of religious extremism. A month before Soofi bought the pistol, Simpson was indicted on charges of lying to the FBI about his plans to travel to Somalia and engage in "violent jihad," according to federal court documents.