Zetas have a mole within their ranks

Inside info pointed way to 3 Texans.

By Dane Schiller
dane.schiller@chron.com
Updated 12:17 a.m., Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A secret informant inside the Zetas drug cartel helped U.S. agents close in on three Texans sought in an arms-trafficking ring suspected of providing a weapon used in the ambush that killed an American agent in Mexico, court papers contend.

The supposed informant's role was made public Tuesday after a judge partly unsealed records related to the arrest of three Dallas-area men.

The informant is not named, but is described as working inside the Zetas for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Ranferi Osorio, 27, and his brother Otilio Osorio, 22, of Lancaster are charged with possessing firearms with obliterated serial numbers. Also charged is their neighbor Kelvin Morrison, 25, who is accused of lying to buy a firearm and dealing without a license.

Tom Crowley, a spokesman for the Dallas Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is working with the DEA on the case, said a probe continues into how the Zetas are getting guns from Texas.

“The reason we took (the three suspects) down is because we found one of the guns from the shooting,â€