CHICAGO _ As Sinaloa boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's trusted godson, Damaso Lopez Serrano was considered to be the highest-ranking member of the notorious cartel to ever turn himself in when he walked across the Mexican border two years ago and began cooperating with U.S. authorities.
It was a move that also made him a marked man, according to federal prosecutors.
While he was locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago 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 at a sentencing hearing for Leon, who pleaded guilty in April to importing thousands of pounds of narcotics into the U.S. on behalf of the cartel.
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 talking about the planned hit.
Security was tight for the hearing 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 Guzman's most trusted associates.
Serrano said he had 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 after 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.
"(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 Guzman 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 Guzman'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.
To protect their lucrative drug trade, cartel members, including Leon, used any means necessary, including "bribing corrupt public officials," committing kidnappings and extortion, and threatening or committing violence against rival drug dealers as well as members of law enforcement, the charges alleged.
According to a recent prosecution filing, a former high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel _ now identified as Serrano _ said he witnessed one of Joaquin Guzman's sons offering Leon an "investment opportunity" to import kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela by airplane. He accepted, the cartel member told authorities.
Another former cartel member cooperating with the feds, Guadalupe Fernandez Valencia, testified Monday that she was in Mexico in February 2014 when she saw Leon running. She said Leon had been at a restaurant with two of Joaquin Guzman's sons when a waiter told them the "government was coming," according to prosecutors.
Valencia testified Leon told her they had exchanged clothing with waiters and then escaped, leaving behind their cars.
Valencia pleaded guilty in July to trafficking narcotics for the cartel and is awaiting sentencing.
Guzman was convicted in New York earlier this year of murder conspiracy and drug trafficking charges and sentenced in July to life in prison.
