Third Arrest Made in Fast and Furious Murder of Brian Terry

Mexican police in Sinaloa reportedly have arrested a third suspect wanted by the FBI in the 2010 murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Ivan Soto-Barraza was among five bandits involved in a shootout with elite BORTAC agents who were patrolling an area near Nogales, Ariz., in search of drug ripoff crews on Dec. 14, 2010, according to a federal grand-jury indictment. Prosecutors allege the gunmen entered the country illegally in a conspiracy to ambush marijuana smugglers and steal their loads under cover of darkness, but ran into the Border Patrol agents instead. The incident sparked a national controversy when whistle-blowers disclosed that two assault-type rifles discovered at the scene were part of a Phoenix-based gun-running investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The probe, known as Operation Fast and Furious, allowed weapons to be acquired by straw buyers, purportedly so that agents could trace the smuggling to crime bosses in Mexico. Instead, hundreds of guns wound up going south, into the hands of criminals, with virtually no tracking. The ensuing scandal led to a condemnation of Fast and Furious by President Barack Obama and the resignation of Dennis Burke, former U.S. attorney for Arizona. Bill Newell, then Arizona’s ATF special agent in charge, was reassigned, and others involved were disciplined as Republican congressional investigators sought to hold Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder accountable. Meanwhile, the FBI issued a reward of $1 million for information leading to the arrests of five suspects, all of them Mexican nationals, on charges of murder, assault, attempted robbery and weapons violations...more