DALLAS, March 1 (UPI) -- A gun used in the attack that killed a U.S. federal agent in Mexico and wounded his partner was purchased by a man in the Dallas area, U.S. officials said.
The powerful, military-style handgun was recovered at the scene of the Feb. 15 shooting of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and allegedly traced back to a man in Lancaster, just outside of Dallas, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday.
Ranferi Osorio, 27, and his brother, Otilio Osorio, 22, were arrested Monday along with next-door neighbor Kelvin Leon Morrison, 25, the Justice Department said in a release Tuesday.
The Osorio brothers were charged with possessing firearms with an obliterated serial number; Morrison was charged with knowingly making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms and dealing in firearms without a license.
Agents who have been tracking and arresting members of weapons rings in Texas working for Mexican drug cartels across the border say the information on the gun's origin was no surprise.
"Texas is a major source state for weapons going to Mexico -- it is the size of our border and the amount of (firearms dealers)," said Tom Crowley, a spokesman for the Dallas division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The gun's history was uncovered in the investigation of the shooting death of U.S. ICE agent Jaime Zapata and the wounding of agent Victor Avila, who were driving on a Mexican highway in an armored sport utility vehicle with official diplomatic plates when they were run off the road and then shot.
Another weapons-trafficking ring in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area that was sending guns to Mexico was broken up just a few months ago, Crowley said.
"You aren't going to come all the way to Dallas and buy two or three weapons to smuggle them," he said. "You come up here, you are going buy more -- they've got the money."
