U.S. Justice Department's investigators on Wednesday released a report faulting the department and officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for the failed Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona, but recommending no criminal charges.

The operation was doomed by a "series of misguided strategies, tactics, errors in judgment and management failures" on the part of agents, prosecutors and senior ATF officials in Washington, said the 471-page report from the department's Office of the Inspector General.

Launched in 2009, the operation, named after a movie about car racing, allowed illegal firearms, believed to be destined for Mexican drug cartels, to slip into Mexico so that federal agents can track sellers and purchasers.

But the operation was considered a failure after federal agents lost track of about 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons and hundreds of weapons were found at crime scenes in both Mexico and the U.S..

Altogether 14 employees of ATF were implicated in the report, but the authors of the report recommended no criminal charges, only saying they should face disciplinary actions. Some of the 14 employees have resigned or retired from their post.

The report found that Attorney General Eric Holder was not informed of the operation until after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Terry was shot dead in a gun battle involving weapons linked to the operation.

Holder said he has reviewed the report, and its "key conclusions are consistent with what I, and other Justice Department officials, have said for many months now: The inappropriate strategy and tactics employed were field-driven and date back to 2006; the leadership of the Department did not know about or authorize the use of the flawed strategy and tactics; and the Department's leadership did not attempt to cover up information or mislead Congress about it."

The operation has been a target of investigation of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Holder was held in contempt of Congress in June in a House vote for his refusal to turn over some documents, but the Justice Department announced it would not prosecute Holder for the contempt charge. The committee then filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against Holder, seeking to force him to turn over the documents.