Fast and Furious: Mexican authorities arrest suspect in killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

[Trump Getting The Job Done]

A member of a drug-robbery ring suspected in the 2010 shooting
death of a Border Patrol agent in Arizona has been arrested deep
in Mexico, leaving just one member of the original "rip crew"
still at large in a case that highlighted the failings of a gun-
tracking operation that let firearms fall into the hands of
criminals in Mexico, authorities said.

The suspect, identified by the Mexican military only as
"Heraclio N.," was apprehended Wednesday in an area known as the
Golden Triangle, the confluence of three states where drug
cartels control vast stretches of territory.

"At the request of the authorities in the U.S., naval personnel
arrested Heraclio N. on the border of Sinaloa and Chihuahua,"
the Mexican navy said in a statement.

Though Heraclio N. was not fully identified, an extradition
order issued in December 2011, more than a year after the death
of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, refers to a suspect named
Heraclio “Laco” Osorio-Arellanes. The U.S. government was
offering a $250,000 reward for information about Osorio-
Arellanes.

Heraclio N. was being held Thursday on suspicion of murder,
theft and illegal use of a weapon. A previous suspect in Terry's
death was held for two years before he was extradited to the
United States.

Terry and three other Border Patrol agents were on duty in a
section of Peck Canyon near Rio Rico, Ariz., on Dec. 14, 2010,
when they encountered a heavily armed six-man team that had
allegedly sneaked across the border and was headed to rob
marijuana dealers. Their illegal operation was known as a "rip
crew," U.S. authorities said.

According to court papers, one of the agents shouted "Police!"
in English and Spanish, and fired nonlethal beanbag rounds. The
rip crew responded with gunfire.

Terry, 40, was struck by a single bullet and mortally wounded.
One of the crew members was shot in the torso. The other
Mexicans fled back across the border.

The Naco, Ariz., Border Patrol station was renamed after Terry
in 2012.

Two guns found at the scene were eventually traced to a member
of a gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored in a Justice
Department-sanctioned, gun-tracking operation known as Fast and
Furious.

The aim of the operation was to let guns cross into Mexico and
to monitor how and where they were used. U.S. authorities have
been criticized for allowing informants to walk away from
Phoenix-area gun shops with weapons rather than immediately
arresting them.

The scandal captured Washington’s attention for a time, as the
insurgent tea party wing of the Republican Party cudgeled the
fledgling Obama presidency in congressional hearings over Fast
and Furious. The furor resulted in the resignation of the head
of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
and underlined one of the signature failures of the Obama
administration. The ATF lost track of 1,400 of 2,000 firearms
that were being monitored.

The government of Mexico announced Heraclio N.’s arrest on
Thursday, proclaiming it as evidence of the country's commitment
to working with American authorities.

The arrest comes during a period of strained relations between
the two countries, prompted by allegations by President Trump
and conservative politicians that Mexican migration is a major
source of crime in the U.S., a contention refuted by social
science and criminal justice statistics.

As for the rip crew's remnants, in 2015, Ivan Soto-Barraza and
Jesus Leonel Sanchez-Meza were each tried and convicted in
Tucson of first-degree murder in connection with Terry's death.

Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, who was shot and apprehended the night
of the confrontation, is serving a 30-year sentence after
pleading guilty to first-degree murder, as is Rosario Rafael
Burboa-Alvarez. It is unclear what, if any, relation there is
between Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes,
the man who appears to be Heraclio N.

The U.S. government is still offering a $250,000 reward for
information leading to the arrest of another alleged member of
the rip crew, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, who is still at
large.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-brian-terry-20170413-
story.html