Sinaloa Cartel boss who supplied Chicago: I was a DEA snitch

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Vicente Zambada-Niebla — the son of one of Mexico’s biggest drug kingpins — lived in the lap of luxury and had 24-hour armed security.

Zambada-Niebla allegedly oversaw the export of tons of narcotics into Chicago and other cities, using trains, ships, Boeing 747 cargo jets and even submarines.

But now he says that he, as well as other top members of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, lived a secret life — one that should give him a get-out-of-jail-free card: He says he was a golden snitch for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In court documents, Zambada-Niebla says that DEA agents allowed him and other leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to operate their drug business without interference. In exchange, he says, he and other Sinaloa Cartel members provided information to the DEA about rival drug cartels in Mexico.

And he says he was promised immunity from prosecution.

“The United States government considered the arrangements with the Sinaloa Cartel an acceptable price to pay because the principal objective was the destruction and dismantling of rival cartels by using the assistance of the Sinaloa Cartel,” lawyers for Zambada-Niebla say in a court filing in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The deal with the devil.