APR 10 (CHICAGO) –A
high-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico pleaded guilty a year ago to
participating in a vast narcotics trafficking conspiracy and is cooperating
with the United States, federal law enforcement officials announced. A written plea agreement with the defendant,
Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, was made public today in U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of Illinois.
Zambada-Niebla, 39, pleaded guilty on April 3, 2013, before
U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo.
Zambada-Niebla was arrested in Mexico in 2009, and he was extradited to
the United States in February 2010.
Zambada-Niebla remains in U.S. custody and no sentencing
date has been set. Under the plea
agreement, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison¸ a mandatory minimum
sentence of 10 years, and a maximum fine of $4 million. If the government determines at the time of
sentencing that Zambada-Niebla has continued to provide full and truthful
cooperation, as required by the plea agreement, the government will move to
depart below the anticipated advisory federal sentencing guideline of life
imprisonment. In addition,
Zambada-Niebla agreed not to contest a forfeiture judgment of more than $1.37
billion.
“This guilty plea is a testament to the tireless
determination of the leadership and special agents of DEA’s Chicago office to
hold accountable those individuals at the highest levels of the drug trafficking
cartels who are responsible for flooding Chicago with cocaine and heroin and
reaping the profits,” said Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the
Northern District of Illinois. Mr.
Fardon announced the guilty plea with Jack Riley, Special Agent-in-Charge of
the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Zambada-Niebla pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to
possess with intent to distribute multiple kilograms of cocaine and heroin
between 2005 and 2008. More specifically,
the plea agreement describes the distribution of multiple tons of cocaine,
often involving hundreds of kilograms at a time on a monthly, if not weekly,
basis between 2005 and 2008. The guilty
plea means that there will be no trial for Zambada-Niebla, whose case was
severed from that of his co-defendants.
Among his co-defendants are his father, Ismael Zambada-Garcia, also
known as “Mayo,” and Joaquin Guzman-Loera, also known as “Chapo,” both alleged
leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Zambada-Garcia is a fugitive believed to be in Mexico, and Guzman-Loera
is in Mexican custody after being arrested this past February.
Zambada-Niebla admitted that between May 2005 and December
2008, he was a high-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel and was responsible for
many aspects of its drug trafficking operations, “both independently and as a
trusted lieutenant for his father,” for whom he acted as a surrogate and
logistical coordinator, the plea agreement states. Zambada-Niebla admitted he was aware that his
father was among the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel since the 1970s and their
principal livelihood was derived from their sale of narcotics in the United
States.
Zambada-Niebla admitted that he participated in coordinating
the importation of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Central and South
American countries, including Colombia and Panama, into the interior of Mexico,
and facilitated the transportation and storage of these shipments within
Mexico. The cartel used various means of
transportation, including private aircraft, submarines and other submersible
and semi-submersible vessels, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels,
buses, rail cars, tractor-trailers, and automobiles.
Zambada-Niebla “subsequently assisted in coordinating the
delivery of cocaine to wholesale distributors in Mexico, knowing that these
distributors would in turn smuggle multi-ton quantities of cocaine, generally
in shipments of hundreds of kilograms at a time, as well as on at least one
occasion, multi-kilogram quantities of heroin, from Mexico across the United
States border, and then into and throughout the United States, including
Chicago,” according to the plea agreement.
On most occasions, the Sinaloa Cartel supplied this cocaine
and heroin to wholesalers on consignment, including to cooperating
co-defendants Pedro and Margarito Flores, whom Zambada-Niebla knew distributed
multi-ton quantities of cocaine and multi-kilogram quantities of heroin in
Chicago, and in turn sent payment to Zambada-Niebla and other cartel leaders. Zambada-Niebla also admitted being aware of,
and directly participating in, transporting large quantities of narcotics cash
proceeds from the U.S. to Mexico.
Zambada-Niebla also admitted that he and his father, as well
as other members of the Sinaloa Cartel, “were protected by the ubiquitous
presence of weapons,” and that he had “constant bodyguards who possessed
numerous military-caliber weapons.”
Zambada-Niebla also admitted that he was aware that the cartel used
violence and made credible threats of violence to rival cartels and to law
enforcement in Mexico to facilitate its business.
The DEA in Chicago led the investigation, joined by the
Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and the Chicago Police
Department. Also assisting were the
DEA’s National Drug Intelligence Center, the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area task force, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee and the Milwaukee
Police Department; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of
Illinois; the Chicago and Peoria offices of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation; the Chicago offices of
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, and the
U.S. Marshals Service; the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, and other state
and local law enforcement agencies. The
investigation was assisted by agents and analysts of the Special Operations
Division (SOD), and attorneys from the Justice Department Criminal Division’s
Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. The
Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs assisted with
Zambada-Niebla’s extradition.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas D. Shakeshaft and Michael J.
Ferrara are representing the government.
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