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Brian Terry Murder Suspect Arrested in Mexico
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 gun battle, 10 miles north of Arizona’s border with Mexico. Two guns recovered from assailants were part of “Operation Fast and Furious,” an Obama-era scheme conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Terry’s suspected murderer was arrested Wednesday by US and Mexico law enforcement personnel.
Heraclio “Laco” Osorio-Arellanes, 38, was caught Wednesday as part of a U.S.-Mexico operation “at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua,” Fox News reported in a story attributed to unnamed “senior law enforcement, Border Patrol and congressional sources” that it labeled “exclusive.”
According to Fox News, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol and the U.S. marshals participated in the task force that took Osorio-Arellanes, whom authorities believe shot and killed Terry, into custody.
“I can confirm that he was arrested today (Wednesday) at a ranch in Mexico,” David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for the District of Arizona, told The Arizona Republic. “The extradition process kicks into effect now, and we’ll be coordinating with the Mexican government to have him extradited to the U.S. as soon as possible.”
The “Fast and Furious” program was an early source of controversy for President Obama and US Attorney General Eric Holder. The BATF’s Phoenix field office allowed guns bought in the US by drug cartels “walk” across the border into Mexico. Then the BATF would track the weapons to senior cartel figures. But, being a government program, it went wrong in a big way. The guns disappeared and agents never even attempted to track them.
Before long, the weapons were turning up at crime scenes in Mexico. Obama asserted executive privilege to prevent Congress from investigating the program, a move later rejected by a federal judge. Capitol Hill investigations turned up evidence of an executive branch cover-up and using the program as a way to push through gun control regulations. US Attorney Dennis Burke was forced to resign, and the GOP House voted to hold Holder in contempt of Congress.
By 2012, “Fast and Furious” guns were used to murder 300 Mexican citizens and terrorist Nadir Soofi used one to attack the 2015 “Draw Muhammad” contest in Texas.
Published in Law, Politics
Fast and Furious makes Trump’s new administration seem really really mature and under control.
Trump is doing fine.
We’ll be lucky to discover any truth behind Obama’s consistent flouting of law. Why isn’t HRC in an orange jumpsuit? Do any of us really believe that Susan Rice will go down? Depressing. Trump is only one man against the Swamp. I pray for him.
Extremely faint praise.
Trump is not only not flouting the law but making progress against the Holders of this world.
Well done to the authorities. I thought this was one of those crimes that would go unsolved and justice denied for Officer Terry’s family.
I thought I’d seen it reported that one of those Fast and Furious guns was used at the Bataclan Massacre, does anyone recall/ know fore sure?
That does not really appear to be the case.
For years the left thought they could bypass the 2nd Amendment by claiming lax US laws led to guns being used in crimes in Mexico. They would say things to the effect that X% (where X was very high) of guns used in crimes in Mexico were bought in the US, thus we need to pass some new infringement of the 2A.
The problem for them (in addition to the pesky Constitution) is that those statistics were lies. X% of the guns that Mexico asked the ATF to trace may have been bought in the US. But the percentage of guns used in crimes in Mexico that were diverted from the US civilian market (we’ll call it Y%) was much smaller than X%. This is likely because Mexico had no need to ask the ATF to trace guns that already were in Mexican records or that clearly appeared to come from somewhere other than the US.
The left stuck with those bogus statistics and got tired of them being debunked. Thus F&F was a plan to increase X and Y for a new push on gun control.
The use in crimes in Mexico was a feature, not a bug.
The use in high profile crimes in the US and beyond Mexico was the bug that let the scheme unravel.
I’m sure that those who favor improved relations with Mexico and France would agree Trump should use the carrot of extradition of Holder and Obama to obtain more comprehensive extradition treaties with those countries.
So Barry enacts a policy that gets (at minimum) 300 Mexican citizens killed. Media reaction?
Trump talks about building a wall (something advocated for by his presidential campaign opponent before it became unpopular to do so; oh, and if you’ve ever been to Nogales or Tijuana, you know we already have walls) and the reaction is:
I commented in a post comparing the Syria strike to the Bin Laden raid pictures, saying Obama was gifted at posit inning himself so as not to get blame if something goes wrong.
This was at the top of my list.
If Obama had succeeded at gun control, he would happily receive the praise from his sycophantic constituents. Because it failed and turned scandalous and corrupt, Holder was the fall guy and Obama got a 2nd term.
He makes me absolutely sick with disgust.
So are the Mexicans going to let us burn him ?
I’d guess that as a condition of extradition we’ll have to agree to no death penalty. Nothing to base that on, other than a belief that no government wants to be seen as sacrificing their citizens to what is perceived to be US bloodlust.
A little over 2000 firearms were shipped into Mexico as a result of Fast and Furious, by the way these weapons weren’t just cheap handguns.
It is somewhat paradoxical to demand that Mexico respect US sovereignty when the US government had a program that was selling firearms to Mexican drug cartels that violates Mexico’s laws and sovereignty.
Who is exhibiting this paradox? Name one person who expresses approval for F&F while expressing scorn over Mexico’s Reconquista policies.
In reality, it is not an issue of respecting sovereignty, but of advancing leftism. Mexico ignores our sovereignty to advance leftism. Obama ignored Mexico’s sovereignty to advance leftism. Thus both are OK as far as the media and political elites are concerned.
If that 300 figure is not an estimate but is based on hard numbers (e.g., 300 where the murder weapon was recovered), think of how many murders, etc. the guns were actually used in during that ~2 year period and then the subsequent 4+ years.
Jon – Breaking News – Massive bomb just dropped on ISIS area in Afghanistan
Can family of Brian Terry file a civil lawsuit against Holder and/or Obama?
I can’t say what would be enough for them… and perhaps if it were me, just having this guy apprehended and shut away might be enough for closure and to move on… Once they feel that closure, pursuing beyond that is just detrimental to the healing process.
But in my head, my response would be criminal trials for the both of them or no justice was served.