Saga of a drug kingpin

Documents obtained by The Times/Tribune Washington Bureau tell how Jesus Audel Miramontes-Varela went from smuggling thousands of pounds of marijuana to being a valued FBI informant. In these excerpts, paraphrased testimony from Miramontes-Varela (“CHUBEN”) describes how he kept several African lions while in charge of the “Plaza” in Namiquipa from 2002 through 2008, and his later eagerness to talk to the FBI.