Vicente Zambada's lawyers claim he and other cartel leaders were granted immunity by U.S. agents — and carte blanche to smuggle cocaine over the border — in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels engaged in bloody turf wars in Mexico.
Controversial defence: Vicente Zambada's claim could throw new light on how U.S. authorities deal with Mexican drug cartels
Experts scoff at the claim, which U.S. prosecutors are expected to answer in a filing Friday in federal court.
But records filed in support of his proposed defence have offered a peek at the sordid world of Mexico's largest drug syndicate, the Sinaloa cartel, which is run by his father, Ismael Zambada, and Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.
It's a world of brutality, greed and snitching, and federal agents would love to have the younger Zambada pass along more intelligence, especially if it could help bring down his family's operation or lead to the capture of Guzman, a billionaire who escaped from a Mexican prison in a laundry truck in 2001.
Main man: Vicente's father Ismael Zambada, godfather of the Sinaloa cartel, pictured at a party in 1993
'It comes down to whether he would be willing to give up his dad or Guzman,' said David Shirk, who heads the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
'Would he be willing to give up his own dad? It seems unlikely.'
Zambada, 35, has rarely been seen since his 2009 arrest in Mexico City, after which Mexican authorities paraded him before TV cameras in a stylish black blazer and dark blue jeans.
His suave image was a sharp contrast to a photo of him with moustache and cowboy hat released by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2007.
He may have upgraded his look after he assumed control over cartel logistics in 2008 and, federal officials say, received authority to order assassinations.
Mexico's most wanted man: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who escaped from prison in a laundry truck
He was arrested and extradited to Chicago a year later to face trafficking conspiracy charges punishable by up to life in prison.
The Sinaloa cartel is one of Mexico's most powerful.
Named after the Pacific coast state of the same name, it controls trafficking on the border with California and is battling rival cartels in an effort to expand east along the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.
Accustomed to luxury in Mexico, Zambada has been held in a 10ft by 6ft cell in Chicago, is often served meals that have gone cold and hasn't been outside in 18 months, his attorneys say.
U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo told the government on Thursday to file a response to those complaints.
'It comes down to whether he would be willing to give up his own dad. It seems unlikely'
Armed marshals led the shackled Zambada into Thursday's hearing.
He appeared at ease, even smiling and winking at a woman sitting on a spectators' bench.
Castillo will decide later whether Zambada's provocative immunity claim has any credibility, but many experts said they were skeptical.
'Personally, I think it is a bunch of malarkey,' said Scott Stewart, who analyzes Mexico's cartels for the Texas-based Stratfor global intelligence company.
'I mean, what the defence is saying is that a huge amount of cocaine was allowed to pass into the United States unimpeded.
'Why would you even have sought his extradition if there was this potential backlash?"
U.S. prosecutors briefly discounted Zambada's claim in one filing, but more details are expected in Friday's documents.
A spokesman for U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald would not comment on the allegation.
Neither would a Washington spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, whose agents Zambada claims to have dealt with in Mexico.
However, clandestine intelligence deals are not uncommon, and conspiracy theories abound in Mexico about the government going easy on one cartel to keep the others under control.
number of gang members in pre-trial custody continues to grow, B.C. pre-trial jails are struggling to deal with tensions between rival groups. The latest attack at North Fraser last week was particularly serious: gangster Hanif Emambakhsh ended up with a broken neck in the assault. He has had links to the Red Scorpions and more recently the break-away Red Lions. Apparently he has a massive Lion tattoed on his back. He is expected to survive. Coquitlam RCMP says they are getting little help with the investigation. Things are particularly tense in North Fraser and in Kamloops, according to union representative Dean Purdy. Interestingly, while the B.C. government keeps track of how many inmate on inmate assaults take place, they don’t maintain a record of how many are gang-linked. I think it is disturbing that a known gang member has been putting money in the accounts of pre-trial inmates. This particular person is linked to the Independent Soldiers. I don’t know if he is the one who paid for Emambakhsh to get beaten. The government official confirmed to me that ANYONE, including a known gangster or convicted drug trafficker, can go up to the counter at a pre-trial jail and put money in the account of an inmate. There is no limit on the amount that can be put in. The funder has to show ID, but that’s it. So it is easy for gangs to pay people to beat up other inmates.
The U.S Drug Enforcement Agency's war on drugs continues with a nationwide ban of synthetic cocaine. Labeled as bath salts, the hallucinogenic drug has become more available in the Grand Junction area as part of a trend seen across the country. In response to increased emergency room visits, the federal agency has moved to emergency control these synthetic stimulants. This action makes it illegal to possess or sell Mephedrone, Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and Methylone or any products containing them for the next year. These chemicals are most often found in forms of 'legal ecstasy' or 'legal cocaine.' During the temporary ban, the DEA will team up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to further study whether these chemicals should be permanently banned. In June, we introduced you to these bath salts in this article. Back then, they were an unregulated drug taking the place of recently banned synthetic forms of marijuana. "It is actually like a synthetic cocaine slash methamphetamine," Jim Schrant with the DEA told us at the time. "So, it's really the worst of both." The bath salts sell at a price of $40 per gram. They are mainly sold at smoke shops. But, in June, Schrant told us that his agency could not find any local dealers. Today, there are at least two. "They're putting it into packaging which is pleasing to the eye with market names of "Blue Dreams," things like that," Schrant said. "And, they're intentionally trying to target that young adult crowd." As part of this emergency control, businesses and citizens have 30 days to get rid of the banned products. At that time, the DEA will publish a Final Order in the Federal Register making the drugs Scheduled 1 substances. That category is the harshest and is reserved for unsafe, highly abused chemicals with no known medical use in the U.S. Violating that law is punishable by jail time. Employees at smoke shops in the area tell us that synthetic cocaine isn't that popular. But, local high school students have heard all about it. "I don't think they care if it's legal," Grand Junction High School freshman Hannah Rady said of some of her classmates. "Nobody does." Just like K2 and Spice, bath salts are labeled "not for human consumption." But, these students say that is not stopping anyone and neither is the law. "People just ask me 'Have you done spice before?' I'm just like, 'No,'" GJHS freshman Emilio Lazcano said. He knows Governor John Hickenlooper made those forms of synthetic marijuana illegal starting July 1, but he says fellow classmates continue to tell bother about it. "They're like 'Oh, well you're supposed to smoke it like this and that,' and I'm like 'Oh, well cool. I'm not really into that stuff.'" "They tell us that it doesn't make their eyes red, so it's way easier to bypass by your parents," GJHS junior Joe Gedscad added. The most common symptoms of these synthetic stimulants include impaired perception, reduced motor control, disorientation, extreme paranoia, and violent episodes. The DEA says the long-term physical and psychological effects are not known but potentially severe. Including Colorado, 33 states have already taken action to control or ban other synthetic stimulants. Most states pass these laws after the DEA files an emergency control on certain chemicals.
