SAN ANTONIO – On Wednesday, a former member of the Zetas cartel told how the cartel slaughtered hundreds of men, women and children during a violent massacre in the town of Allende, and how Mariano Millan-Vasquez, a Zetas kingpin, personally played a role in the bloodbath.
The testimony came during the trial of Millan-Vasquez who is facing murder, conspiracy and drug trafficking charges.
On Thursday, Adolfo Efran-Taviro, who once was an independent drug trafficker, told the court how the Zetas took over the town of Piedras Negras and forced him to work for the cartel.
“’Anytime you move anything, you report to us,’” Efran-Taviro said he was told by cartel commanders.
Efran-Taviro said that he personally received hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Millan-Vasquez at a Piedras Negras car wash for distribution in the U.S.
“The cocaine would always arrive in big suitcases,” Efran-Taviro testified.
Millan-Vasquez’s attorney, Jamie Cavazos, has questioned the credibility of the government’s witnesses from the trial’s outset. He said that the government’s case is void of physical evidence.
“All of them, basically, are requiring us to base everything on their word,” Cavazos said Thursday. “I don’t think we should make assumptions. I think we need to go on facts and that’s what I believe the jury’s looking for.”
Cavazos said that when the government rests its case, which could come as early as Friday, he plans to call character witnesses to testify on behalf of his client.
If Millan-Vasquez is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.