Posted on 10/27/2011 11:47:02 AM PDT by Smokeyblue
A Dallas County man linked to the murder of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata agreed to plead guilty to weapons violations.
Otilio Osorio, 22, of Lancaster, Texas, agreed to plead guilty Wednesday in federal court to three counts of a 21-count indictment against him.
Prosecutors say one of three guns found at the scene in Mexico where Agent Zapata was shot to death on February 15 was traced back to Osorio. Investigators believe he was the straw purchaser of the weapon, bought in Texas four months before the murder. As part of an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Osorio agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to make a false statement in firearms records and possessing a weapons with a removed serial number.
Seven other defendants in the case are also expected to enter guilty pleas. The maximum penalty for each count is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing dates have not yet been scheduled.
As reported by CBS News, Congressional Republicans investigating allegations that the Obama administration allowed thousands of weapons to be trafficked into Mexico have asked for more information about the circumstances surrounding Agent Zapata's death.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
didn’t somebody from the US government give this guy taxpayer money to buy the gun?
This guy is as good as dead, in or out of prison.
WEAPONS VIOLATIONS????????
I recommend he be kept on ice until Issa can depose him and get the 5 Ws from him concerning ATFE etc involvement....
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
I want this guy to be on the witness stand, point at Eric Holder, and say “That’s him.”
Issa and Grassley point out in the letter sent yesterday the connections between straw purchasers who were supposed to be monitored by ATF and Zapata’s death, showing if ATF has arrested and prosecuted these straw purchasers rather than allowing them to continually transfer heavy weapons to Mexican Cartel members, Zapata may still be alive.
Dear Attorney General Holder:
On October 11, your Department (DOJ) sent Senator Grassley a letter regarding murdered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata. Not only was the response more than six months late, it completely failed to answer the key questions.[1]
In a March 1, 2011, press release, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) stated it was unaware of Otilio Osorio’s purchase on October 10, 2010, of the weapon used to murder Agent Zapata.[2] According to ATF documents, however, the agency had reason to believe as early as September 17, 2010, that Otilio’s brother and co-habitant Ranferi Osorio and their next-door neighbor Kelvin Morrison were straw purchasers.[3] Yet the ATF apparently made no effort to contact Ranferi Osorio or Kelvin Morrison and inquire about how their weapons came to be trafficked to Mexico within 2 weeks of their purchase.
Moreover, it appears that the ATF had an opportunity to arrest the Osorio brothers and Kelvin Morrison during a staged operation on November 9, 2010. According to a DOJ press release, “a Dallas ATF confidential informant (CI) arranged a meeting” at which the Osorio brothers, arriving at the meeting with Morrison as a passenger in their vehicle, “unloaded several large bags containing firearms into the CI’s vehicle, which was kept under surveillance…”[4] The DOJ press release says all 40 firearms had obliterated serial numbers, which made simple possession of them a prosecutable offense.[5] Local law enforcement officials stopped the vehicle later in the day—presumably in concert with ATF and for the purpose of identifying the vehicle’s inhabitants.[6] Inexplicably, none of the suspects were arrested.
Finally, documents in our possession indicate that the ATF did not create a Report of Investigation (ROI) on the November 9 transfer of firearms until over three months later, on February 25, 2011—the same day ATF received the report tracing the Zapata murder weapon back to the purchase by Otilio Osorio.[7] Documenting investigative steps three months after the fact and only after a trace returned to the murder of a federal agent raises red flags about the nature of ATF’s investigation.
I agree. His best chance is to begin screaming out the guilt of higher-ups as publicly as possible, just to maximize the political costs of killing him, when it happens.
That's his only prayer, and not much of one.
They ham-handedly killed Vince Foster, and they killed Web Hubbell (Chelsea's dad) when he was in jail.
How many of those same 21 counts could apply to various ATF and DOJ officials (incl ERIC HOLDER) who directly or indirectly facillitated Osorio's straw purchases??
“and they killed Web Hubbell (Chelsea’s dad) when he was in jail.”
I think Web Hubbell is still alive.
According to a thread posted here yesterday about Chelsea Clinton possibly running for office, several posters mention he is still alive and Wikipedia doesn’t have any mention of a death.
They might be thinking of Jim McDougal.
Bill and Hills old financial partner in Whitewater.
“didn’t somebody from the US government give this guy taxpayer money to buy the gun?”
Don’t know if they are related but remember this article?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110928,0,135740.story
Informant helped smuggle guns to Mexico, investigators say
An FBI/DEA confidential informant helped smuggle firearms from the ATF’s Fast and Furious gun-trafficking surveillance operation to drug cartels in Mexico, according to evidence compiled by congressional investigators.
The investigators said the informant obtained the weapons from Manuel Celis-Acosta, considered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to be the “biggest fish” of 20 individuals indicted in Fast and Furious. At the same time the informant was receiving large amounts of “official law enforcement funds as payment” for his services, they said.
SNIP
Congressional investigators have learned that the DEA was aware of Celis-Acosta’s alleged drug trafficking activity as early as late 2009, just when Fast and Furious was getting underway, and that he was “providing hundreds of firearms to members of Mexican drug cartels.” In fact, they knew Celis-Acosta allegedly was moving guns to Ciudad Juarez, south of El Paso, “but that he was uneasy about taking the guns across the border himself.”
The FBI and DEA also knew that the informant, identified as “CI#1,” was ordering weapons from Celis-Acosta and smuggling them into Mexico. That informant, “apparently the financier for Celia-Acosta’s firearms trafficking ring, later began cooperating with the FBI and may have received additional government payments as a confidential informant.”
In one payment, the investigators learned, the U.S. government gave the informant $3,500 for his services.
and don't forget the garage owner who had a car load of Whitewater documents and had a mysterious and fatal car acceleration into an electric pole.
Informant close to Zetas helps crack case
U.S. source inside cartel? Records show tip on gun that killed agent came from gang
A secret informant inside the Zetas drug cartel helped U.S. agents close in on three Texans in their roles in a suspected arms-trafficking ring that allegedly provided 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 partially unsealed records related to the arrest of three men who live in the Dallas area.
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, said a probe continues into how the Zetas are getting guns from Texas.
“The reason we took (them) down is because we found one of the guns from the shooting,” Crowley said of the alleged traffickers. “That ratcheted up the investigation for us to go after these guys.”
At least two other guns were recovered at the scene, but officials have not released any information on whether they have been traced.
Yeah! Sorry I botched that. Yes, u r correct.
^_^
and don't forget the garage owner who had a car load of Whitewater documents and had a mysterious and fatal car acceleration into an electric pole.
Sharp memory.
Or the ex Ark State Trooper (Bill's ex bodyguard) who joined the CIA, got caught up in Mena and then got shot in the head twice in while waiting for a red light to change?
I remember the list just got longer and longer.
There was also the WH lesbo intern Caity Mahoney (sp?) who was shot in the head in Gerogetown Starbucks, along with ALL of her colleagues (who were in the freezer).
Tragic, botched robbery, right? RIIIIIIIGHT...!
Web is alive and well.
You are thinking of somebody else the Clintons wanted dead. He was in jail too. I don’t remember his name. He had a bad heart and was given no medical help/treatment when he needed it. For me, that is a type of murder.
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