Mini Lic testifies about ‘hit’ put on him in Chicago’s federal jail

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat ChicagoSun Thank you GP and Mica

While he was locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop in April , Serrano testified Monday in Chicago’s federal court, he learned that gang members had been offered $25,000 to severely beat him.

The alleged “hit” had been ordered by Serrano’s former drug trafficking associate, Jesus Beltran Leon, who wanted someone to “split his head” as punishment for cooperating, according to federal prosecutors.

Serrano’s testimony came in the first day of a sentencing hearing for Leon, who pleaded guilty in Aprilto importing thousands of pounds of narcotics into the U.S. on behalf of the cartel. The hearing was set to conclude Tuesday.

In asking for a sentence of at least 35 years in prison, prosecutors said in a recent court filing that Leon was secretly recorded by another inmate in May talking about the planned hit.

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Security was tight for the hearing Monday in U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo’s courtroom, with metal detectors set up by the entrance and cellphones and other electronics forbidden.

Dressed in green prison garb, Serrano, 31, testified through a Spanish interpreter that he was drafted into the cartel by his father, Damaso “El Licenciado” Lopez Nunez, who at the time was one of El Chapo’s most trusted associates.

Serrano said he’d personally ordered at least 15 killings and more than 20 kidnappings of rival narcos in his time with the cartel. He said he knew Leon mostly though drug trafficking networks run by Guzman’s sons, known in Mexico as “Los Chapitos.”

In 2001, Leon was with one of the sons when they went to pick up Guzman following his spectacular escape from prison, according to Serrano, who testified that Leon told him the story personally.

So they went and picked him up, and Chapo told (his son) not to worry, that he was going to get lost for a while, but that everything would be all right,” Serrano testified. “And then they just dropped him off somewhere.”

According to Serrano, Leon was known to be brash and undisciplined in his work. He would carry a gold-plated AK-47 onto the dance floor at parties, snort cocaine and go on dayslong drinking binges, Serrano testified.

Years ago, Leon was exiled from Sinaloa’s capital of Culiacan after he fatally shot a politically powerful person during an argument at a party, Serrano said.

On cross-examination, Serrano acknowledged that he had no firsthand knowledge of the alleged killing and couldn’t remember the victim’s name.

In asking for the minimum possible sentence of 10 years in prison, Leon’s attorneys say prosecutors have vastly overstated his role in the cartel and ignored compelling evidence that Leon was brutally tortured by Mexican marines after his arrest in 2014 — abuse that was allegedly witnessed by U.S. federal drug agents.

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“(Leon) was tortured physically, brutally, and repeatedly,” Leon’s lead attorney, Beau Brindley, wrote in a filing last month. “If one must choose between being tough on crime and tough on torture, one should choose the latter as the more insidious evil to root out. Unlike crime itself, this kind of torture erodes the very respect for our institutions.”

Castillo had previously heard evidence about the alleged torture as part of a defense effort to dismiss the indictment. While Castillo declined to toss the charges, he said in a ruling that the allegations painted a “disturbing picture” of tactics employed by law enforcement in Mexico.

The judge also said he was “deeply disturbed by the accusation that American law enforcement agents may be condoning or turning a blind eye to these tactics.”

Leon, 35, also known as “El Trebol,” which is Spanish for “The Clover,” was added to an indictment in 2014 against the notorious Mexican cartel that has been described as the most significant drug case in Chicago’s history. He pleaded guilty to narcotics trafficking in April in a declaration that carries no agreement with prosecutors on a possible sentence that could be as much as life in prison.

The indictment, which also names El Chapo and several of his top henchmen, alleged that the cartel used jumbo jets, submarines and tunnels to smuggle massive amounts of drugs into the U.S., much of which was later distributed in wholesale quantities through a network built by Chicago twins Pedro and Margarito Flores.

The charges alleged that Leon acted as a lieutenant for El Chapo’s son, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and helped coordinate vast shipments of drugs into the U.S. for distribution. The cartel members then laundered billions of dollars in proceeds back to Mexico, according to the charges.

Guzman was convicted in New York earlier this year of murder conspiracy and drug trafficking charges and sentenced in July to life in prison.