News Scan

Border Agent’s Killer Gets Life:  One of the drug smugglers who participated in the 2010 murder of a federal Border Patrol agent was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge Wednesday.  The Associated Press reports that Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes used a  military style assault rifle he obtained through then Attorney General Eric Holder’s “Operation Fast and Furious” to kill agent Brian Terry.  Terry and fellow agents were staking out a site popular with drug traffickers in Southern Arizona when they encountered a group of armed Hispanics.  Terry was shot and killed by one of the AK47 assault rifles the criminals were carrying.

The “Fast and Furious” program allowed roughly 2,000 weapons to be bought by straw purchasers with the intention of tracking the weapons to drug cartels.  Although the tracking effort failed, the weapons were found at numerous crime scenes on both sides of the border and tied to a several murders, including the killing of agent Terry.  Eric Holder became the first U.S. Attorney General to be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents to a House committee investigating the operation.  At Holder’s request, President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege in order to withhold the documents.  In 2016, a federal court ruled that the records in question were not covered by privilege.  A House lawsuit to try to recover the records is still pending in federal court.