Another alleged associate of captured Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been brought to Chicago to face charges as part of what has been described as the biggest drug case ever brought here.
In a flurry of legal maneuvering, Edgar Manuel Valencia Ortega, nicknamed “the Fox,” was whisked to a police lockup in west suburban Oak Park following his arrest in January in Las Vegas to determine if he would agree to secretly cooperate with the U.S. government in the Sinaloa case.
Ortega was arrested Jan. 26 at Las Vegas International Airport after flying there from his native Mexico, according to court records.
After his refusal to cooperate, Ortega was added as a defendant in the indictment against Guzman and charged with helping import multi-ton quantities of cocaine and heroin into the U.S. on behalf of the vast Sinaloa enterprise. Ortega has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond.
The indictment adding Ortega was unsealed just days after the bombshell revelation last week that Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the highest-ranking Sinaloa leader ever to be arrested on U.S. charges, had pleaded guilty a year ago and was cooperating with law enforcement. Zambada-Niebla, 39, is the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who is widely believed to have taken control of the cartel after Guzman’s capture in February.
Ortega’s lawyers objected they were not made aware of their client’s indictment until March 14, just a few days before his bond hearing on separate drug conspiracy charges he faces in Chicago. The lawyers alleged that prosecutors were retaliating for his refusal to cooperate. But U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly ruled Monday that prosecutors had not acted in bad faith.
“At present, there is no indication that the charge against Ortega in the (Sinaloa) case is a baseless charge that was trumped up…to punish him for deciding not to cooperate,” Kennelly wrote in his ruling.
Another alleged “Chapo” henchman, Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez, is scheduled to go to trial in May after he backed out of a plan to plead guilty when an erroneous Chicago television news report implied he was cooperating against his infamous boss, raising concerns about his family’s safety in Mexico.
At a status hearing for Vasquez-Hernandez today, U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo said he would likely side with prosecutors and keep the identity of jurors in the trial secret. However, the judge asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Shakeshaft to file a motion enumerating why the identities of jurors should not be made public, contrary to the longstanding practice in federal court.
