In 2010, United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by a Mexican cartel member with a gun supplied by the U.S. government under former President Barack Obama’s “Operation Fast and Furious.”
On Wednesday, the same suspected cartel member was reportedly arrested by a joint U.S.-Mexico law enforcement task force that included members of the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, according to Fox News.
Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes was captured at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua, and U.S. authorities have said they will seek his extradition..
Osorio-Arellanes was believed to have been involved with the Dec. 14, 2010, gunfight between Border Patrol agents, including Terry, and members of a five-man cartel “rip crew” known for robbing drug dealers along the border.
Terry’s death exposed Operation Fast and Furious, in which the federal government — under the direction of Obama’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — allowed criminals to buy guns in Phoenix-area shops with the intention of tracking them once they made their way into Mexico.
However, as per usual whenever the federal government is involved in a grand scheme, the plan went sour, and the bureau lost track of more than 1,400 of the 2,000 guns they allowed smugglers to buy.
Two of those guns were found at the scene of Terry’s killing.
Four members of the “rip crew” have already been sentenced to jail time in the U.S., including Manual Osorio-Arellanes, who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in February 2014.
Ivan Soto-Barraza and Jesus Sanchez-Meza were convicted in October 2015 by a federal jury of nine different charges, including first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery.
Rosario Rafael Burboa-Alvarez was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in assembling the “rip crew.”
The last remaining member of the cartel, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, was believed to still be at large.
Despite Obama’s massive failure to keep our Border Patrol agents safe and subsequent failure to bring Terry’s killer to justice, President Donald Trump has once again proven that his “tough on crime” and “tough on border issues” approach is a success.
Although Osorio-Arellanes has not yet been found guilty, his arrest and capture is the best news we’ve heard regarding the failed Fast and Furious operation in a long time.
(via: Conservative Tribune)
