Gunman given life sentence in ‘Fast, Furious’ border killing

TUCSON, Ariz. — A man convicted of shooting a U.S. Border Patrol agent nine years ago in a case that exposed a botched federal gun operation known as “Fast and Furious” was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

U.S. District Judge David Bury sentenced Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes to the mandatory life sentence after hearing tearful statements from the sisters of Brian Terry, the agent who was fatally shot while on a mission on Dec. 14, 2010.

Osorio-Arellanes is one of seven defendants who were charged in the slaying of Terry. Osorio-Arellanes was convicted of first-degree murder last year after being extradited from Mexico in 2018.

Terry’s death exposed the “Fast and Furious” operation, in which U.S. federal agents allowed criminals to buy firearms with the intention of tracking them to criminal organizations. But the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of most of the guns, including two found at the scene of Terry’s death.

Terry, 40, was part of a four-man team in an elite Border Patrol unit staking out the southern Arizona desert on a mission to find “rip-off“crew members who rob drug smugglers. They encountered a group and identified themselves as police.

The men refused to stop, prompting an agent to fire bean bags at them. They responded by firing AK-47type assault rifles. Terry was struck in the back and died soon after.

Osorio-Arellanes was the shooter that night.

Five of the seven men charged in Terry’s killing are serving prison sentences after pleading guilty or being convicted.