Drug chief busted for US agent's murder

Mexican authorities arrested a leader of the Los Zetas drug cartel cell in connection with the murder of a US immigration agent last month and other killings, the federal attorney general's office said Monday.

Sergio Mora Cortes, alias El Toto, is the leader of a cell that operates in San Luis Potosí state. Mexican authorities say they have begun to tighten the noose around the Zetas' operations.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jamie Zapata was killed in an ambush on a San Luis Potosí highway on February 15. His partner was seriously wounded. Mora was the boss of Julian Zapata Espinoza, the cartel member accused of killing Zapata.

Also on Monday, authorities in Washington said that the gun linked to the shooting had been purchased across the border in north Texas. Federal agents raided a home in Lancaster, Texas and arrested three people in connection with the case.

"I heard a couple of those air grenades go off," one witness told a Dallas television station. Those arrested were identified as Otilio and Ranferi Osorio, and their neighbor Kelvin Morrison.

Stateside gun buyers

Americans are being recruited by the drug cartels to purchase guns used in Mexico's deadly drug turf battles, offering them fees ranging from $50 to $500 per weapon, according to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

"We believe they have their own firearms trafficking organizations - individuals here to purchase guns for these organizations," said Robert Champion, special agent-in-charge of the ATF Dallas field office.

The three men in Lancaster had been under investigation since last year for smuggling. Authorities said that they sold at least 40 weapons to a federal informant, but were not arrested.

ATF agents said they had made a positive identification on the weapon that led them to a gun shop in a small town outside Fort Worth, Texas.

The Dallas television station reported that the gun shop owner said that the weapon was purchased legally and he conducted all the background checks in accordance with state and federal laws.

It was not known how the gun ended up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartel. But ballistics tests carried out confirmed it was the gun used in the death of the US agent, authorities said.

In Mexico, Mora was arrested in Saltillo in a hotel where he was staying along with five other accomplices. While Mexican authorities did not directly link Mora to the killing of the American agent, they said that he is alleged to have participated in the murder of a public security chief in Nuevo Laredo and at least two other assassinations. Authorities seized six grenades, three luxury vehicles and nearly $16,000 in cash from Mora.

In addition to the boss of the San Luis Potosí drug cartel cell, authorities also arrested the Zetas organization's bookkeeper, Luis Miguel Rojo Ocejo, known as El oso rojo (Red bear), who oversaw the payment linked to the murder.