AZMEX F&F EXTRA 30 OCT 2012
Note: more on the staff report.
http://www.examiner.com/article/justice-officials-experienced-
collective-memory-loss-on-fast-furious?cid=db_articles
Note: "the weapons the bandit crew used had been hidden for them on
the U.S. side of the border."
Sinaloan admits guilt in murder of border agent Brian Terry
Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/sinaloan-admits-guilt-in-
murder-of-border-agent-brian-terry/
article_386c910c-22b7-11e2-8e01-001a4bcf887a.html
A confessed border bandit pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to murdering
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry almost two years ago.
In exchange for his guilty plea to first-degree murder, prosecutors
agreed not to pursue the death penalty against the defendant, Manuel
Osorio-Arellanes. They also dismissed the other charges he was facing.
Osorio-Arellanes, 36, admitted his guilt Tuesday morning in Tucson's
U.S. District Court before U.S. Magistrate Bernardo Velasco. He is
scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 11, by U.S. District Judge David Bury
and faces up to life in prison.
As part of his plea agreement, Osorio-Arellanes admitted that he had
been part of a group of six people from Sinaloa who crossed the U.S.
border on Dec. 12, 2010 intending to rob marijuana smugglers in
Southern Arizona.
Osorio-Arellanes said he was recruited for the trip by two others
from his area.
In a key detail, Osorio-Arellanes said that the weapons the bandit
crew used had been hidden for them on the U.S. side of the border.
That's significant because at least two of the weapons they retrieved
had been sold in January 2010 to in Operation Fast and Furious. After
federal agents found the guns were sold to a target of the
investigation, and with the help of whistleblowers and a U.S.
senator, the controversial ATF investigation was revealed.
When the six bandits were going to retrieve the weapons on Dec. 12,
Manuel's brother, Rito Osorio-Arellanes, was arrested, but the other
five members of the group escaped, including Manuel, he admitted.
They retrieved the weapons and "were looking for drug smugglers to
rob" two days later when they encountered Terry and his group of
Border Patrol tactical-unit agents.
Members of Osorio-Arellanes' bandit group fired shots, but the plea
agreement does not establish who fired. "Agents shot Manuel Osorio-
Arellanes, and he was captured at the scene," the agreement says.
Rito Osorio-Arellanes is awaiting sentencing on lesser charges in the
case.
The four other defendants are fugitives, though Mexican police
captured one, Jesús Leonel Sánchez Meza, on Sept. 6 in Puerto
Peñasco, Sonora and have been holding him in a central-Mexico prison.
The FBI announced the identities of the fugitives in July. The other
three are Ivan Soto-Barraza, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga and
Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes.
Mexican national charged in killing of Border Patrol agent to change
plea
Published October 30, 2012
Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/30/mexican-national-to-change-
plea-in-death-border-patrol-agent-tied-to-furious/
U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry was fatally shot Dec. 14
north of the Arizona-Mexico border. (AP)
A man charged with killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a 2010
firefight near the Arizona-Mexico border is scheduled to change his
plea Tuesday in federal court.
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, of El Fuerte in the Mexican state of
Sinaloa, had previously pleaded not guilty to murder, assault on a
federal officer and other charges in the December 2010 death of
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Two rifles bought by a gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored by
the government's botched investigation known as "Operation Fast and
Furious" were found at the shooting scene. But authorities have
declined to say whether the murder weapon was linked to an Operation
Fast and Furious purchase.
Authorities say Terry and other agents came under attack in a canyon
north of the Arizona border city of Nogales by Osorio-Arellanes and
four other men who had come to the U.S. from Mexico in order to rob
marijuana smugglers.
Investigators have declined to say which of the five men fired the
shot that killed Terry.
Osorio-Arellanes was shot during the gunfight and has been in custody
since the night of the shooting. The FBI said Osorio-Arellanes told
investigators that he raised his weapon toward the agents during the
shootout but didn't open fire.
Of the four other men charged in Terry's death, one is in custody,
while three others remain fugitives. Authorities have offered a $1
million reward for information leading to their capture.
Operation Fast and Furious was launched in 2009 to catch trafficking
kingpins, but federal agents lost track of about 1,400 of the more
than 2,000 weapons — including AK-47s and other high-powered assault
rifles.
Some of the guns purchased illegally with the government's knowledge
were later found at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S.
Critics have hammered federal authorities for allowing informants to
walk away from Phoenix-area gun shops with weapons, rather than
immediately arresting suspects and seizing firearms.
Investigators say the two guns found at the scene of the Terry
shooting were bought by a straw buyer for a smuggling ring suspected
of purchasing guns for the brutal Sinaloa cartel.
Jaime Avila, 25, has admitted in court to buying the two guns and has
pleaded guilty to gun charges in a smuggling case that's separate
from the prosecution into Terry's death.
Avila, who isn't charged in Terry's death, faces up to 10 years in
prison when he's sentenced on Dec. 12.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/30/mexican-national-
to-change-plea-in-death-border-patrol-agent-tied-to-furious/
#ixzz2An9m8Jfr
Revelan que con 'Rápido y Furioso' se buscó atrapar a 'El Chapo'
J. JESÚS ESQUIVEL
29 DE OCTUBRE DE 2012 ·
DESTACADO
Darrell Issa, legislador republicano por California.
Foto: AP
WASHINGTON (apro).- Líderes republicanos en el Congreso federal
acusaron al gobierno de Barack Obama de permitir el tráfico ilegal de
armas a México, en el marco de la operación Rápido y Furioso, con el
pretexto de querer atrapar a capos del narcotráfico como Joaquín El
Chapo Guzmán, líder del cártel de Sinaloa.
En un segundo reporte sobre Rápido y Furioso que dieron a conocer
Darrell Issa, legislador republicano por California y presidente del
Comité de Supervisión y Reforma Gubernamental, y el senador Chuck
Grassley, republicano por Iowa, integrante del Comité Judicial, se
acusa directamente a Eric Holder, procurador general de Justicia, de
haberse dedicado a tratar de eliminar a El Chapo sin que le importara
el trasiego ilegal de armas a México.
"La operación Rápido y Furioso no fue estrictamente una estrategia
concebida localmente por la oficina del ATF (Buró de Alcohol, Tabaco,
Armas de Fuego y Explosivos) de la ciudad de Phoenix (Arizona), sino
el producto de un plan deliberado a los más altos niveles del
Departamento de Justicia, enfocado a identificar a los líderes de una
red grande de tráfico de armas", señala el reporte.
Las conclusiones de los congresistas, que se dan a conocer justo a
una semana de las elecciones presidenciales del próximo martes 6 de
noviembre, aseguran que la estrategia de identificar a los capos del
narco mexicano, aunada a la inercia institucional, fue el génesis de
la puesta en marcha y fracaso de Rápido y Furioso.
"Poco después de que asumiera el puesto como procurador general,
Holder pronunció una serie de discursos sobre el combate a la
violencia a lo largo de la frontera sur", se indica en el reporte.
Enseguida, en el informe se matiza que Holder, "en el otoño de 2009,
se concentró específicamente en combatir al cártel de Sinaloa y
luego, en el otoño de 2009, el Departamento de Justicia dio a conocer
un documento titulado La estrategia del Departamento de Justicia para
combatir a los cárteles mexicanos, que cristalizó la visión del
procurador general".
En este contexto, los dos legisladores republicanos reiteraron sus
acusaciones de negligencia contra Holder, sosteniendo que aun cuando
en la dependencia a su cargo se dio cuenta de lo que pasaba con
Rápido y Furioso, él prefirió usar esto para intentar desmantelar al
cártel de Sinaloa comandando por El Chapo, en lugar de parar la
operación que facilitó el trasiego ilegal de armas a México, que al
final terminaron en manos criminales.
De acuerdo con las conclusiones de los dos legisladores, pese a que
Holder y el Departamento de Justicia ya fueron exonerados por el
inspector general de la dependencia, quien en un reporte aseguró que
el procurador general nunca permitió de manera deliberada que por
medio de Rápido y Furioso se traficaran armas a México, sí son
responsables de omisión a causa de su interés por El Chapo.
"El Departamento de Justicia tomó una decisión táctica al cambiar el
objetivo (de la Operación) y, en lugar de arrestar a compradores
intermediarios de armas, se concentró en la identificación de las
redes del tráfico", puntualiza el reporte.
A través de Rápido y Furioso, operación creada por la oficina de ATF
en Phoenix, se permitió que conocidos traficantes de armas usaran a
intermediarios para meter más de 2 mil 500 armas de todo tipo a
México, con el supuesto objetivo de rastrear al arsenal y con ello
anular las redes del trasiego.
Sin embargo, los agentes de ATF no sólo perdieron el control de
Rápido y Furioso, también el rastro de las armas, y éstas terminaron
en manos de narcotraficantes mexicanos, sobre todo del cártel de
Sinaloa.
"Este reporte revela un amplio fracaso en la toma de decisiones
dentro de la jerarquía del Departamento de Justicia", aseguró el
congresista Issa, quien sostuvo que sus críticas al gobierno de Obama
carecen de interés político-electoral.
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