Big-league Mexican drug traffickers imprisoned in the United States are contending that unnecessarily harsh conditions - locked up alone in ultra-high-security confinement - take a physical and psychological toll and may violate U.S.-Mexico extradition treaties. The courthouse pleadings for relief come from men who cut their teeth and made their names in a criminal underworld that has carried out unheard of levels of brutality in Mexico, including murder by beheading, mutilation, hanging and massacre. But at least one U.S. federal judge on Thursday conceded the claims have some merit. He ordered that Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, whose father runs the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal syndicate in which Zambada was a ranking member, should be let out of his cell for outdoor recreation time on a roof top.
As Zambada waits to see if he'll face trial, he has been largely confined to a windowless 10-by-6-foot cell for "18 months of isolation without seeing the sun or breathing fresh air," contended his lawyers in a request to the judge. He and others admittedly are part of cartels that for decades have pushed tons of cocaine and marijuana into this country, and they have been sent to a U.S. justice system that is far tougher than that of Mexico. "The word on the street in the United States is you can't bribe your way out of prison or bribe your way into better living conditions," said former Houston-based federal prosecutor Mark W. White III. "In other places, it might not be as uncomfortable."
Such high-profile prisoners have many enemies, and officials have said they are kept in isolation to ensure their security. Zambada, for example, contends he should not be prosecuted because while trafficking, he served as an informant for U.S. agents by giving them the cartel's intelligence on rivals. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsly said the length of a prisoner's sentence, as well as any history of violence and escapes, are among the factors considered when determining where and how they should be held.
In the supermax