US Prosecutors Seeking to Prevent Dirty Secrets of Drug War From Surfacing in Cartel Leade

The criminal case of accused Sinaloa drug organization leader Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla is straying even further into the path of a cover-up under the guise of national security, if pleadings filed by his attorneys are to be believed.

Lawyers for the alleged Mexican narco-trafficker, son of one of the top figures in the Sinaloa “cartel,” recently filed a motion asking the court to block U.S. prosecutors’ efforts to exclude the defense from discussions with the judge over the treatment of evidence deemed classified material. Zambada Niebla’s attorneys contend they must be part of those discussions since the supposed classified material goes to the heart of their client’s claims in the case.

The information the US government is seeking to withhold from Zambada Niebla’s attorneys, they believe, is likely related to a key figure in the case, an informant, Mexican attorney Humberto Loya Castro, who served as an intermediary between the Sinaloa Cartel leadership and US government agents seeking to obtain information on rival narco-trafficking organizations.

The US government, in court pleadings filed in September, lodged a motion in the case seeking to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA, a measure designed to assure national security information does not become public during court proceedings.

Although US prosecutors claim in court pleadings that no immunity deal was cut with Zambada Niebla, it is clear that his attorneys believe there is a wealth of evidence to support their claims of a Sinaloa/US government quid pro quo — most of it flowing from Loya Castro’s relationship with his US law enforcement and intelligence agency handlers.

Zambada Niebla’s attorneys argue that Loya Castro has been intimidated by US agents warning him that should he testify for the defense in the case, things could turn very ugly for him.”

Read the complete article online at Narco News.