A second suspect wanted in the death of a US border official has been extradited to the US, in a case linked to a botched gun-running sting.

Lionel Portillo-Meza pleaded not guilty in the death of Brian Terry in an Arizona court on Wednesday.

Weapons found at the scene of his death were linked to a US anti-gun-running scheme called Fast and Furious.

Under the programme, the US allowed criminals to purchase guns in order to trace them to major arms traffickers.

A.) It’s good we got the guy, though Obama’s critics will treat it as another convenient distraction.

B.) It’s disappointing to see the BBC post such a deceptive description of F&F. The people who were “allowed” to purchase the guns had every legal right to do so. They were suspected straw buyers, but had no convictions. The law doesn’t allow the government to deny a gun sale to a suspected criminal who isn’t on trial and/or hasn’t been convicted of any crime. Even if the buyer is on State aid and is purchasing 20 firearms at a pop.

The real reason the GOP objected to F&F was that ATF agents were trying to do something at all to shine light on the problem of straw purchases. The entire notion that sales were allowed that otherwise would not have been legal on their face is a total lie.

The entire point of the F&F investigation was that the private party transfer loophole and its lack of a requirement for background checks and strict record keeping is a huge problem.