One was a 7.62 mm AK-47 style Draco handgun that federal authorities traced to a straw purchase by Otilio Osorio from a Texas gun shop. Osorio and his brother were sentenced to prison on weapons charges. Another was an AK-47-style semi-automatic assault rifle bought from JJ's Pawn Shop in Beaumont in another straw purchase and passed into Mexico by Manuel Barba, who has also been sentenced to prison.
But Jim Hedrick, owner of JJ's Pawn Shop, said Wednesday that his store made a legal sale and the gun was later resold.
"All of our paperwork was checked and all of it was legal," Hedrick said. He had not seen the lawsuit.
Osorio, Barba and the pawn shop are among those named as defendants in the lawsuit.
In a procedural notice to the government filed last year, the agents' lawyers sought $25 million for Zapata's family and $12.5 million for Avila. No figures were included in the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
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