5:50 pm on April 9, 2013

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/no-delay-in-money-laundering-trial-involving-quarter-horses-allegedly-linked-to-zeta-cartel.html/

Dallas criminal attorney David Finn tried hard for a continuance in the start of the high-profile money laundering trial in Austin over alleged profits of the deadly Zetas criminal syndicate. But U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks denied the motion and the trial is on for April 15th, according to federal filings released today in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas.

Finn represents José Treviño Morales, the brother of Zeta capo Miguel Angel Treviño Morales. A little more than a year ago, Jose Treviño Morales, his wife Zulema and their family lived on a pot-holed street in Balch Springs. The family moved to Lexington, Oklahoma, in January 2012 to operate a large ranch for more than 400 quarter horses, as we reported back in October.

The U.S. government charged the horses were used to bank and launder millions in Zeta profits from narcotics trafficking. Five Treviño family members, along with about a dozen others, were named in the criminal indictment unsealed last June. José Treviño Morales, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been in custody near Austin since his June arrest in Oklahoma.

Finn said U.S. government attorneys delayed releasing certain evidence favorable to his client. Assistant U.S. attorney Doug Gardner responded in court filings that they’ve provided the defendants materials “as soon as it becomes available.”

Now, Finn has an “avalanche” of evidence ranging from documents to audio tapes to transcripts that allegedly translate conversations from Spanish to English. One disc alone created a seven-foot pile of paper and there are more than 100 discs, Finn said.

“This is not a trial by ambush. It is a trial by avalanche.”

This past Sunday, Finn received a wiretap transcript, according to federal filings. It contains this conversation: “What does his brother have to do with it? His brother has nothing … He’s clean, he’s just an ordinary guy … He has nothing to do with it and the other one is pure …”

The transcript then carries the letters “UNIN,” sometimes used for unintelligible.

It’s unclear who is talking to whom. U.S. government attorneys said one of the individuals on the call is now dead, according to other filings.

Finn contends that the brother referred to is his client José Treviño Morales, “the ordinary guy.”

Finn contends his client is innocent.

“If my client is guilty of anything, it is being the brother of two alleged criminals,” said Finn, a former Dallas County criminal judge and former federal prosecutor in Dallas and Fort Worth. “If he is guilty of something, it is being somewhat naïve.”

So as of this afternoon, the horse trial begins Monday in Austin in the downtown federal courtroom of Judge Sparks, an appointee of former President George W. Bush. The trial could last several weeks, we’re told.