Federal prosecutors in Chicago have just recommended a sentence of 17 years in prison for Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the son of Mayo Zambada and the heir apparent to the Sinaloa cartel. Vicente cooperated w/the feds after his extradition in 2010. They called his help "unrivaled."
Vicente's assistance, according to court documents, help charge dozens of high level Sinaloa operatives. Most importantly he testified against Chapo Guzman at Chapo's trial in Brooklyn this winter. But new details about Vicente's cooperation were released today.
Among the people Vicente helped take down was Damaso Lopez, Chapo's longtime chief of staff. His information was used by prosecutors not only in Chicago but in Texas, Brooklyn, Washington DC, southern California and Manhattan.
Vicente signed “multiple declarations” to extradite cartel members from Mexico (including Damaso’s package.) His assistance also helped Chicago prosecutors obtain a wiretap which began in November 2012 and caught, among others, Chapo's sons discussing business.
All of this has placed Vicente and his family “in increased danger of retaliation.”
"Having cooperated against...the leadership of multiple cartels...their children, family members, close associates, and rivals" Vicente would "in all likelihood be killed absent his protection.”
"Having cooperated against...the leadership of multiple cartels...their children, family members, close associates, and rivals" Vicente would "in all likelihood be killed absent his protection.”
Prosecutors said Vicente "showed no interest" in the drug trade at first and tried to leave it several times. “As a young adult he relocated to Spain & then to Canada w/his family in an attempt to escape the world into which he had been born and the violence that flowed from it.”
But he always got sucked back in, they said: "Each time, fear of the infliction of violence upon him and his family, even in places far from Mexico, drew him back to the protection provided by his father’s organization."
The government, as usual, has showed only a few of cards in public. Vicente's sentencing memo was accompanied by three sealed documents which likely to go into more detail on who he cooperated against--and how--in an effort to persuade the judge to hand down a lighter sentence.
Perhaps one day we'll get to see them.
