U.S. News

Feds: Cartel plotted attack on government

Published: Nov. 27, 2011 at 12:11 PM

CHICAGO, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors say a drug cartel conspired to attack government buildings in Mexico after one of their leaders was arrested.

Court documents contend leaders of the Sinaloa cartel were enraged at the arrest of Jesus Vicente Zambada-Neibla in 2009 and sought to obtain U.S. military weapons such as infantry rockets to carry out retaliatory raids against the Mexican government or even U.S. diplomats.

Zambada-Neibla's brother and cartel boss Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman-Loera allegedly told a U.S. informant in a taped telephone conversation the Mexican government was being too accommodating to American narcotics agents, the El Paso (Texas) Times said Sunday.

"Let it be a government building, it doesn't matter whose," Guzman-Loera said. "An embassy or a consulate, a media outlet or television station."

Zambada-Neibla was extradited to the United States and faces trial in Chicago for allegedly running a major Sinaloa cocaine and heroin operation in the Windy City. The Times said his lawyers plan to argue U.S. officials had allowed the ring to operate freely in exchange for information about the other cartels and double-crossed him.

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