San Diego: Mini Lic to plead guilty, ending an era

Mini Lic to plead guilty this week

*Note, the change of plea hearing has been changed to Wednesday
Edited to reflect the change

Late last year, in the hours toward midnight, during he midst of the seemingly never ending haze of Christmas parties, and relentless, frenetic holiday cheer, I found myself on the balcony of a downtown condo.  Directly behind me was the Metropolitan Correctional Center, MCC, the federal jail in San Diego.  

This particular unit did not overlook the detention center, but rather, loomed in front of it, facing the bay, the hotels, lights of Coronado across the water.  I felt it's presence though, as I am frequently more lost in thoughts, than I am interested in those around me.

As I have noted in these kinds of articles, the MCC houses almost everyone, who was anyone in the Sinaloa structure post 2010, all those who were caught, anyway. Or, to be more precise, those who trafficked through the Tijuana/San Diego corridor, from Chino to Serafin, and Mini Lic, who sent tractor trailer and truck loads of meth, cocaine, and heroin from Sinaloa to Tijuana.  

Damaso Lopez Serrano was a presence himself, in the era of Chino Antrax's infamous instagram pictures. He captured the culture of the moment, the mid 2010's, of social media obsession, and documentation, status and likes.

 That culture has now manifested itself in uglier and more vicious ways, as children from Culiacan, and elsewhere, style themselves as D list Chino's and Mini's, lacking the prestige, power, money, and style of the older traffickers. Los juniors, who themselves were considered young, and breaking with the norms of the past, discretion and a kind of humility, as displayed by Mayo Zambada, in his 2010 interview. 

El Pirata de Culiacan, an alcoholic orphan, who was exploited and used, trafficked in a sense, to parties and events, a clown, a a joker, a court jester for adoring and leering fans, cheering on the drugs, the alcohol, the guns, the lifestyle.  Or an imitation of it.  El Pirata De Culiacan was shot 15 times, and died on the floor of a bar, blood, hair, the slick, sticky alcohol and ash stains on the floor. I don't think he even got a pair of Louboutin's, the red soled designer shoes, illuminating the glamour shots of Chino, across Europe.  

Mini Lic's own instagram captured narco life in less international ways, often showing himself and his cousins, friends, entourage toasting local beers, and racing in the mountains of Sinaloa.  Sometimes shots of women, and Mini Lic flashing the peace sign, engraved pistols and car keys.  It was over a long time ago.  Maybe it was over that night in August 2016.  Maybe it was slightly after, when Los Chapitos, his one time compadres were returned alive, betrayed, embarrassed, but alive.  

Or when his father, Damaso Lopez Sr. was arrested in a Mexico City condo, far from the battlefield, where his men were thrown from planes, or left dead, bodies disfigured with bullet holes.  He turned himself him to the DEA at the Calexico Port of Entry in late July, where he was taken into custody by the DEA, and brought to San Diego.

 He had been indicted in August 2016, on drug trafficking charges, with a small circle of relatives and friends, three of whom were arrested, or turned themselves in shortly after, including his uncle Alvaro Lopez, who pleaded guilty in fall of last year.  Los Chapitos, with their reach, wanted to make sure the family, and all their loyalists were cleansed. Many, assuredly were.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2017/08/damaso-lopez-mini-lic-indited-in-san.html

Now, Damaso Lopez Serrano, changes his plea.  He will plead guilty, and federal court proceedings will continue, and he will wait in MCC for his sentence.  He will plead in front of the same judge who oversaw cases against Chino Antrax, and Serafin Zambada Ortiz.

He will plead guilty to one or two of the charges on the five count indictment, the rest will be dismissed. In at once a very simple, and very existential way, all these men were on a list.  Their names have been crossed off.  Others, still on that list, and hundreds of miles away, must wonder when their time will come.  If Damaso sees his son again, it will be in federal prison. Both Jr and Sr, I suppose.   

I don't know if these men think in these terms, perhaps not.  When they stand in front of a judge for sentencing, many apologize, some break down, are they truly ashamed?  Do they really reject the life? God is often mentioned.  Do they not miss the buckets of champagne, yachts and off road racing?  

In another year, more probably, we will learn how long it will before Mini Lic is free again. He leaves behind a legacy of sorts, an era, a moment in this history, where it seemed he would never fall.  It's a legacy of blood and consumption, of fame, and irony, and maybe, most of all an illusion.