Thread: Houston: Former City Employee Admits Drug Cartel Ties

Former city worker admits he led drug cell

Jaime Zamora, a former Houston Parks Department employee, says he led a drug cartel cell that moved cocaine from Mexico to Houston.


A former Houston Parks Department employee turned narco-trafficker admitted in federal court Tuesday that he led a drug cartel cell that moved millions of dollars worth of cocaine from Monterrey, Mexico, to Houston.

Authorities have long contended that after his brother was murdered in Mexico, Jaime Zamora took sole control of the business in Houston, exchanging bulk cash and drugs in his East End home, as well as in his parents' house across the street.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine after he was snared in an undercover operation by a drug enforcement agent .

He also is accused in state court of masterminding the Houston killing of a man he mistakenly thought was a hated drug rival, “El Narizon,â€

Yet another example of Mexican style public service coming to America!

Let us all embrace the cultural diversity that is BEING FORCED DOWN OUR THROATS!

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

Yet another example of Mexican style public service coming to America!

Yes, and a job like he has pays pretty good money. No doubt there was someone much more deserving who could have taken that job. Probably our sanctuary city ex-mayor Bill White approved of his hiring.

Originally Posted by bigtex

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

Yet another example of Mexican style public service coming to America!

Yes, and a job like he has pays pretty good money. No doubt there was someone much more deserving who could have taken that job. Probably our sanctuary city ex-mayor Bill White approved of his hiring.

too bad your ex-mayor is going to be the DEM candidate for governor.
WE MUST get word out about what happened on his watch in houston, especially with five police dead by illegals and he refused to allow ICE do any work in the city

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Originally Posted by jamesw62

too bad your ex-mayor is going to be the DEM candidate for governor.
WE MUST get word out about what happened on his watch in houston, especially with five police dead by illegals and he refused to allow ICE do any work in the city

Its funny I never see andy political adds about Bill White. Probably he is a shoe in for the Democratic candidate so why bother. No doubt when the general election starts up he will be brutally attacked.

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

Yet another example of Mexican style public service coming to America!

Let us all embrace the cultural diversity that is BEING FORCED DOWN OUR THROATS!

Yeah...appalling isn't it!

Jurors told restaurant killing part of drug war
Ex-Houston city worker on trial, accused of ordering hit
By DANE SCHILLER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
March 8, 2011, 11:04PM


The slaying of an innocent man in a drug hit was part of an ongoing feud between rival traffickers that spilled blood from Mexico to Houston, say prosecutors who accuse a local man of masterminding the botched plot and other mayhem.

Jaime Arturo Zamora, a former municipal parks department worker, faces up to life in prison if convicted of capital murder.

Zamora, 40, is already serving 27 years without the possibility of parole for a drug conviction that came after he was busted on additional charges while free on bond awaiting the murder trial, which started Tuesday.

"It is a drug war that started in Monterrey (Mexico) and grew like a cancer into our backyards," Assistant District Attorney Shreya Gulamali told jurors. "What you will hear will sound like it came out of a movie."

Jose Perez was shot to death in May 2006 in front of his wife and young children in the parking lot of Chilos, a Mexican-style seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway.

Zamora's lawyer, Paul Looney, warned jurors they will hear some brutal things during the trial, but what they will not hear is proof that his client is guilty.

"The evidence is going to come in a manner that is just gruesome," he predicted "You are going to hate the evidence and you might even hate all the players, but it is your sworn duty to look for proof of the allegation."

Informant's testimony
Among the challenges for prosecutors is connecting Zamora to the hit, as he was not at the shooting scene.

Looney has previously sought to portray Zamora as a family man and former youth baseball coach who lived in a simple home across the street from his parents.

The Perez slaying went unsolved until years later, when authorities investigating a suspected weapons trafficker caught a break.

In a bid for leniency, officials said, the weapons trafficker turned informant and led authorities into the middle of the rivalry between Zamora and Santiago Salinas, a hated rival.

Hit men allegedly working for Zamora shot Perez when they mistook him for Salinas, who looked similar, had a wife by the same name, and was even in the Chilos restaurant during the attack.

Three men involved in that shooting, including the triggerman, have already been convicted in connection with it.

Childhood friends
Salinas — the original target of the Chilos restaurant attack — was killed six months later in the doorway of the Baymont Inn & Suites, a motel also on the Gulf Freeway.

Salinas' mother, Benita Salinas, testified that Zamora and her son were friends since childhood.

As adults, they had a dispute.

Santiago Salinas was warned by Zamora's older brother — a major drug trafficker who was later shot to death in Mexico — that if Salinas ever went to Monterrey he would be killed, she said.

Salinas' older brother, Saul Salinas Jr., testified that Jaime Zamora used to supply him with cocaine, but there was a falling-out that involved a home invasion and the theft of several pounds of cocaine.

Salinas, who is now serving time in U.S. prison, recalled how long before dealing drugs with them, he stole cars with the Zamoras.

"We all knew each other for years," said Salinas.

dane.schiller@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 63153.html