The son of one of the top leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel testified that former Mexican President Vicente Fox’s chief bodyguard worked for them. The bodyguard was one of several top military figures that received large cash bribes in exchange for favors and information.
The bombshell revelation comes during the testimony of Vicente Zambada Niebla as part of the ongoing drug trafficking trial against Sinaloa Cartel’s boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. As Breitbart News has reported, the ongoing trial has not only provided a glimpse into the inner workings of Mexico’s largest drug cartel, it has also outed several public officials at the highest levels as having worked for the cartel while claiming to be fighting it.
Vicente, the son of Sinaloa Cartel co-leader Ismael El Mayo Zambada, told jurors that his father paid off several Mexican Army generals in order to get them to provide information as well as to get them to fight rival cartels. The cartel heir’s testimony comes as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.
One of the high ranking military officials outed by Zambada was the chief bodyguard for Mexican President Vicente Fox, Mexico’s Revista Proceso reported. The cartel heir described Colonel Marco Antonio de Leon Adams as a friend of his father. He said that they would call him Chicles or Gum in reference to a popular brand of chewing gum in Mexico.
One of the bombshell incidents took place in 1997 when Vicente Zambada said he walked into the offices of Mexico’s Estado Mayor Presidential (the military branch tasked with protecting the president) and met with the general in charge to complain about investigations into his family. According to testimony reported by Revista Proceso, the cartel heir met with General Roberto Miranda over a series of raids at the business of El Mayo’s wife who the family claimed was not tied to drug trafficking.
During his testimony, Zambada spoke about another corrupt military official who worked for them — retired Army General Humberto Eduardo Antimo Miranda. The general met with Zambada and his father in 2007 and provided information about other generals taking money from Los Zetas and the Beltran Leyva cartels to move against Sinaloa. The cartel heir said the general began working for them in exchange for a $50,000 monthly bribe.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify that Vicente Zambada Niebla is the son of Sinaloa Cartel co-leader Ismael El Mayo Zambada.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.