by Havana and Chivis Martínez for Borderland Beat
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| U.S Attorney Team |
Notes from the courtroom
The Austin, Texas federal courtroom filled early and
soon faced a blur of facts, initials, figures, names of horses, stables, races,
LLCs, informants, and so much previously presented testimony all heads were
spinning and emotions frazzled. Standing room was not allowed, so there was a
jockeying for the limited seats, and even for press, who had to follow the
strictly enforced rule of no electronics in the courtroom.
For over a year and a half, Judge Sam Sparks remarked; he'd worked the case lugging around more paper than he could carry and by the look of his courtroom podium no one doubted it.
Sentence recommendations precede
the sentencing hearings, filed both by defense and prosecution teams, however,
sentencing hearings are mini trials in themselves, with evidence, and testimony
presented. Eleven convicted defendants
and over forty attorneys were a part of the long process.
There was much talk about the
dollar amount funneled through the quarter horse operation as being a very
conservative estimate. The US attributed
it to the sophistication of the Zetas money laundering scheme. If factors
didn't add up 100% proof, it was not included. Judge Sparks commented
that even if the dollar figure might have been relatively conservative, there
was overwhelming resounding amount of evidence to convict the participants.
At one point Sparks marveled,
"one of the remarkable things about this case is that not one of the
defendants had a criminal history and they participated in it for greed, fear
or intimidation."
Ramon Segura was the first
witness whose testimony was supposed to help lighten Francisco
Colorado Cessa’s lengthy sentence.
Before the court Ramon Segura
Flores stated he was a founding member of ADT Petrolservicios in 2001, so
obviously, Francisco Cessa Colorado's business partner. While working for ADT
from 2002-2007, Segura’s job was procuring RFPs, fulfilling contracts and
tracking income. He purchased machinery and said all of Pemex money was
deposited directly into the " Bancomer
#989835 account." "I handled all acquisitions and knew about
all the funds to cover them"
When asked about Pemex's
corruption, he said "that is something I cannot comment on, I just do my
job.....I was aware of their reorganization because of corruption within Pemex
and aware of money awarded to fulfill my contracts."
Segura discounted a referred to 6 million
loan from Efrain Torres aka Z14 as something very traceable, that more or less
couldn't have happened under his watchful eye. And the 50 million given to
Colorado Cessa, he was not aware of either.
Ramon Segura said he speaks daily
with Colorado Cessa and has not been involved in fraudulent activities for the
company. When asked by the prosecution if he participated if he participated in
criminal activities for Colorado Cessa, he replied no but was reminded by
Assistant US Attorney, Michelle Fernald that he was under oath. He acknowledged that and was adamant when
repeating “no”.
There was much discounting of
testimony by the defense throughout the trial and also continuing on the first
day of sentencing by the defense on the familiar subject of information
provided from confidential informants to the government. One of Colorado
Cessa's lawyers (Sanchez Ross) asked the witness for the prosecution, Scott
Lawson, about El Pitufo's credibility,
an infamous informant, having testified in numerous cases (over 80 cases) and is living boarded by the
Office of Attorney General with a $5,000 a month salary. El Pitufo was
initially going to be used by the American government in this case but was not
used.
Case FBI Investigator Scott
Lawson and Steve Pennington, criminal investigator for the IRS each took the
stand, one after the other for the government.
Scott Lawson went over previous testimony in the case reminding us that
testimony showed that two businessmen had been killed by the Zetas for
cooperation in this case.
It was sobering to learn Victor
Lopez; an integral part of the case had been killed by the Zetas for
cooperating with authorities.
Victor Lopez picked up some of
the slack after Carlos Nayen returned to Mexico. Lopez set up LLCs with Fernando Solis Garcia and was deeply involved in money structuring, as well as
smuggling cash over the border for payments to Southwest Stallion in Elgin
Texas.
Additionally, there was previous
testimony, a massive paper trail, and photos of his flying from Laredo to
Oklahoma for a money drop and returning to Laredo in the same day. Lawson
testified Treviño told the Zetas that Lopez attracted attention. Lopez was
detained in March 2012 and provided information to the Government.
Lawson told the court Victor
Lopez was later killed.
On Friday morning a breaking news
event quickly overshadowed the sentencing hearings, when it was revealed that
Segura and Francisco Colorado Cessa Jr. were arrested in a charge of attempting to bribe the judge in Francisco seniors case, for 1.2 Million dollars.
That made Thursday’s little back
and forth between a U.S. Attorney and Segura, during his testimony, more
relevant. Having declared, under oath, that he
had never participated in illegal activities with Colorado Cessa.
Hours later Segura and Colorado’s son were
arrested in the bribery case.
On Friday at the Colorado/Segura
bribery preliminary hearing, Judge Austin told the defendants as he was referring to the charges on the
affidavit that they had the right to an attorney; Ramon Segura replied
offhandedly, "I don't understand US Law."
Then he added he was trying
to retain Colorado Cessa's attorney, Mike DeGeurin, as was
Francisco Colorado
Jr. It was suggested they might want to alert the Mexican Consulate of their
crime as was typically done in similar instances or they could have their
lawyer attend to it. They both said they would leave that to their attorney.
Commenting on the bribery
case, U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman said; "The latest allegation, if proven,
demonstrates that individuals associated with the most violent drug cartel
believe that they can corrupt what we hold as the bedrock of American justice -
the United States Courts," said U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman said in a
statement.
"We are one step ahead of them and if they continue to try to
function as they do in Mexico, we will find them, we will stop them, and we
will do whatever it takes to ensure that they are punished to the full extent
of the law."
Sentencing
Adan Farias represented by Daniel Wannamaker Sentenced to 3 years’
probation 3600 dollar fine.
Farias, of Norco California, a bedroom
community of ranches and horse stables in southern California, is a top notch
horse trainer, his company LA Horses was a success, but far from the aspirations he
once held of becoming an FBI agent. Some
around Los Alamitos Race Track say his success in the last 2 ½ years of his
career, at the minimum, were the result of running his horses doped on
zilpaterol.
As with many of the
peripheral characters of the Zetas saga,
there is as much to make an argument for Farias being a sympathetic
character, as there is to frame him as a scoundrel.
For starters the doping, secondly, 11 dead
horses in 2 ½ years, racing horses in his care.
Yet his supporters point to his
actions before the Zetas, a professional, driven, hardworking, a family man,
willing to give of himself in charitable causes, creating a youth program.
In 2011, a 17 year old boy named
Emanuel connected with the ‘Make A Wish Foundation’ saying his dream was to
meet his idols, Paul Jones and Adan Farias. Farias spent a day with Emanuel. This was a year before his ‘idol’ had his
license revoked for doping.
Farias was contacted by Carlos
Nayen, who eventually contracted Farias to train 10 Zetas horses in the United
States. Nayen asked Farias to travel to
Mexico to meet someone Nayen referred to as “The Boss”.
Nayen was deep in the Zetas U.S.
operations, drugs, weapons, money laundering and every aspect of the Zetas
quarter horse operation. Nayen’s boss Miguel Treviño, wanted the best trainers
for his horses, and Farias was a star in the field of quarter horse training.
On a June day in 2010, he
travelled from SoCal to San Antonio where he was picked up by Nayen’s people
and driven to the border. He hadn’t a
clue who the people were who were taking him, where he was going, or who this
“boss” was, a man that Nayen once referred to as”40”. He did later report that he felt an
uncomfortable feeling, a leeriness from
the time he was picked up in San Antonio.....continues on next page
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