Fast & Furious - Man accused in botched gun probe to change plea
Man accused in botched gun probe to change plea
star-telegram.com
Posted Thursday, Apr. 05, 2012
By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press
PHOENIX — A man accused of buying two rifles found at the scene of the fatal shooting of a federal agent near the Arizona-Mexico border is scheduled to change his plea Thursday in the federal government's botched gun smuggling investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Jaime Avila Jr. faces charges of dealing guns without a license and making false statements in firearms purchases as an alleged member of a 20-person smuggling ring that's accused of buying guns and smuggling them into Mexico for use by the Sinaloa drug cartel. Avila had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Authorities say two AK-47 variants bought by Avila from a suburban Phoenix gun store were found in the aftermath of a December 2010 shootout that mortally wounded Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz.
Federal authorities have faced harsh criticism since Terry's shooting for allowing suspected straw gun buyers to walk away from gun shops with weapons, rather than arrest the suspects and seize the guns there.
Terry was killed in a shootout with bandits in a canyon north of Nogales. The shooting broke out as Terry and three other agents tried to catch five suspected illegal immigrants believed to be bandits who rob illegal immigrants as they cross into the United States.
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes of El Fuerte, Mexico, was shot during the gunfight and is charged with second-degree murder in Terry's death. Osorio-Arellanes isn't charged with being a member of the alleged gun smuggling ring.
Avila, who hasn't been charged in Terry's death, is accused in the gun smuggling case of claiming to buy six AK-47 variants and one .50-caliber rifle for himself when he was actually making the purchases on behalf of the ring.
Mexico's drug cartels often seek out guns in America because gun laws in Mexico are more restrictive than in the United States.
The goal of the U.S. government's gun smuggling investigation was to catch weapons-trafficking kingpins, but firearms agents lost track of many weapons they were trying to trace to smuggling ringleaders, and some guns ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S.
The investigation is the focus of an inquiry by congressional Republicans.
Several agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have said they were ordered by superiors to let suspected straw buyers walk away from Phoenix-area gun shops with AK-47s and other weapons believed headed for Mexican drug cartels, rather than arrest the buyers and seize the guns there.
The federal agency lost track of some 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons whose purchases attracted the suspicion of the Fast and Furious investigators.
Trial for the remaining alleged members of the gun smuggling ring is set for Sept. 25. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
So far, two members of the ring have pleaded guilty, and a total of three alleged ring members were expected to change their pleas.
source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/m...8#.T32qCbKAZ8F
