A second gun trafficker based in Texas was sentenced to prison after one of his weapons was linked to the 2011Â death of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata.
Manuel Barba, of Texas, was sentenced to 100 months in prison on January on weapon trafficking charges, according to a report by CBS News. Court documents show that Barba was under surveillance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about six months before a rifle he sold was found at the scene of Zapata’s murder.
Barba pleaded guilty to the illegal exportation of firearms in October.
Jaime Zapata
Zapata was killed Feb. 15, 2011, while driving an armored Suburban with diplomatic plates along a highway in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.  Fellow agent Victor Avila, Jr. was wounded in the incident. That month, Mexican authorities arrested six members of the Zetas gang in connection with the shooting. According to earlier reports, the gang members allegedly opened fire because they believed the agents were members of a rival gang.
According to court documents, Barba recruited straw buyers and helped export “at least 44 firearms,” according to the CBS News report. In a recorded phone call, Barba told straw buyers that the guns were going to the Zetas gang.
In October, another Texas man, Otilio Osorio, pleaded guilty to conspiring to make a false statement in firearms records and possession of weapons with a removed serial number. Prosecutors alleged that three weapons found at the scene of Zapata’s killing were traced back to Osorio.
As part of their probe of controversial gun-running operation Fast and Furious, members of Congress pressed the Justice Department to reveal what information it had about Osorio before he was arrested.
