USA: Defendant sentenced for death of border agent

The seventh and final defendant in the 2017 shooting death of a border agent has been sentenced, a case that exposed the failed federal weapons operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison in a Tucson court, federal prosecutors announced.

Favela Astorga, 41, was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 2017 on a provisional warrant. He was extradited to the United States in January 2020 and pleaded guilty in the case in April this year.

The death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry exposed the “Fast and Furious” operation, in which federal agents allowed criminals to buy firearms to smuggle them to criminal groups. But the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of most of the weapons, including two that were found at the scene of Terry’s death near the Arizona-Mexico border.

The administration of President Barack Obama received strong criticism for the operation. Former Attorney General Eric Holden was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to the operation.

Terry, 40, was a former Marine who was part of an elite four-member Border Patrol unit stationed in the South Texas desert on a mission to track down a group of people posing as agents. to rob drug dealers. On the night of December 14, 2010, they found a group and identified themselves as police officers.

The men refused to stop, prompting one of the officers to fire rubber bullets at them. They responded with AK-47 assault rifle fire. Terry was shot in the back and died shortly after.

Prosecutors said the seven men charged in connection with Terry’s death are serving sentences ranging from eight years to life in prison after pleading guilty or being convicted at trial.