The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Dallas knew two brothers were involved in trafficking guns to Mexico and failed to arrest them before a U.S. agent in Mexico was murdered using one of their smuggled guns, according to a Justice Department review released Wednesday.
The report, by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, examined the events leading up to an assault on two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Feb. 15, 2011.
ICE agent Jaime Zapata was killed near Santa Maria del Rio, Mexico when his armored SUV came under fire from members of the Zetas drug cartel, the report said. Zapata’s partner, Victor Avila, was seriously wounded.
ATF agents in Dallas had learned eight months earlier -- in June 2010 -- that the brothers, Otilio and Ranferi Osorio, were involved in arms trafficking but failed to follow up, the review found.
“Overall we found numerous problems with ATF’s assimilation of information concerning the Osorio brothers…and the timeliness of ATF’s response to mounting evidence that they were committing firearms offenses,” the report said. “We determined the ATF’s Dallas Field Division had collected sufficient facts” to investigate further before Otilio Osorio purchased the gun used in the Mexico ambush.
“There clearly was probable cause to arrest both Osorio brothers … after ATF witnessed the Osorios complete a transfer of 40 firearms on Nov. 9, 2010. Yet, ATF’s first contact with (them) did not occur until late February 2011,” the report said.
That was 10 days after the agent was murdered in Mexico and investigators had tracked one of the guns to the brothers.
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“We did not agree with explanations the ATF offered for this delay,” the inspector general wrote.
The report said Otilio Osorio bought the gun linked to the Mexico attack in October 2010 at the DFW gun show.
The report was also critical of ATF's actions following Agent Zapata's murder.
When agents searched the Osorio brothers' house in Lancaster, they failed to seize some guns that they were legally entitled to take, the report said. Two of those guns were later found at crime scenes in Mexico .
The brothers were later arrested at their home on East Colonial Drive in Lancaster in March 2011. Both are now serving federal prison sentences.
An ATF agent in Dallas, Meredith Davis, said the report speaks for itself and did not dispute any part of it.
"ATF is making organizational progress but nonetheless we recognize this report contains valuable lessons that should be heeded," she said.
