The indictment, which was handed up by a federal grand jury in November, centers on a gunfight involving Border Patrol agents and bandits in Arizona near the border with Mexico on Dec. 14, 2010. One of the agents, Brian Terry, was fatally wounded, and it later emerged that two guns found at the scene had been bought by someone suspected of being a straw buyer for a smuggling network in the Operation Fast and Furious investigation. “Agent Terry served his country honorably and made the ultimate sacrifice in trying to protect it from harm, and we will stop at nothing to bring those responsible for his murder to justice,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement. The existence of a sealed indictment and the identity of the defendant who is in custody, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, had already been made public. But the announcement on Monday disclosed the reward and the names of four fugitives — Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes and Lionel Portillo-Meza — charged with crimes including first-degree murder, assault on a federal officer and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. The indictment contends that the men had illegally entered the United States from Mexico with a plan to “arm themselves with firearms” and use the weapons to rob drug traffickers of marijuana. Instead, the men got into a gunfight with four Border Patrol agents, including Agent Terry. Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, whose identity had previously been disclosed, was arrested on the night of the shooting. The indictment says he had previously been convicted of felony assault in Maricopa County, Ariz., in 2006, and it charges him with “possession of a firearm by a prohibited person” — a Romanian-made assault rifle and 25 rounds of ammunition. The court filing also charged a sixth man, Rito Osorio-Arellanes, in connection with the case, but only with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. It said he had been arrested on immigration charges by Border Patrol agents on Dec. 12, 2010. Federal officials said the indictment was being unsealed so public assistance could be sought in finding the other four defendants. A cousin of Mr. Terry, Robert Heyer, thanked officials in both the United States and Mexico for pressing forward with the investigation. “It has been a difficult 18 months for the family since Brian Terry was murdered in December of 2010, and today’s announcement provides hope that justice will eventually be served,” he said in a statement, adding, “It is the family’s hope that the unsealing of details in the case, the identification of the four fugitives and the issuance of reward monies will lead to the eventual capture of all individuals responsible for the murder of Agent Terry.” Operation Fast and Furious was an investigation by Arizona-based agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from late 2009 to early 2011 into a suspected gun-smuggling network linked to a Mexican drug cartel. Agents, seeking to build a bigger case, sometimes did not move swiftly to arrest suspected low-level “straw purchasers” for the network or to find a way to interdict their weapons. The agents eventually lost track of about 2,000 weapons bought by the suspects, many of which have not been recovered and are presumed to have reached criminal gangs in Mexico. It has since emerged that A.T.F. agents based in Arizona had used similar tactics — and lost track of weapons — in three previous gun-smuggling inquiries during the Bush administration. Last month, the Republican-led House voted to hold Mr. Holder in contempt of Congress because the Justice Department did not turn over documents related to the case. President Obama asserted executive privilege to block a Congressional subpoena. In the Terry family statement, its lawyer, Patrick McGroder, reiterated its call for the Obama administration to release the documents, saying that the family deserves “a full and thorough explanation of how Operation Fast and Furious came to be.”
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