| Man Arrested for Colorado
Takeover Worried Not Safe Death
Penalty Mulled 1 Pleads Guilty
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
March 3 – Anderson
Zambrano-Pacheco, depicted
taking over an apartment
building in Aurora, Colorado
then arrested in a sweep this
week on Odgen Avenue in The
Bronx, was presented on
January 29 before U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Jennifer E.
Willis. Inner City Press was
there. While
Zambrano-Pacheco through his
appointed Criminal Justice Act
lawyer consented to detention,
he expressed concern about his
safety in jail. His lawyer
cited press coverage and asked
for an order directing the
Bureau of Prisons to take
precautions.
Judge Willis after some back
and forth agreed to recommend
to BOP that they be mindful of
security concerns. Jump cut to April
21 when more defendants in the
now-indicted case were brought
in, assigned CJA lawyers and
detained on consent. One asked
for consular notification to
Venezuela. Inner City Press
will stay on the case(s). Jump again to
April 23, when co-defendant
Bello-Chacon, arrested at 8
am, was presented and detained
on consent. On April 28,
another, Luciano, presented
and detained on consent. On April 30, a
mass arraignment. Inner City
Press was there, from the thread: Judge: Only 12 of
the 21 charged are here today.
AUSA: One has previously been
removed...Velasquez will be
flown in in early May. Others
are in Chicago, Florida and
Oregon. Mata is in immigration
custody Judge: Why
only him? AUSA: He'll be here
in SDNY in 2 weeks. Judge: The
charges include harboring and
sex trafficking, guns and drug
trafficking. All are detained
- and all pled not guilty,
ultimately waiving a public
reading. Afterwards: a
further conference on July 15,
2025 at 2:00 p.m On May 7, another
co-defendant Freites Velazquez
was flown in from Chicago,
presented and detained. On May 16
co-defendant Mata was
presented and detained on
consent, represented by a
white show CJA counsel who
used to be with SDNY. On May 23, three
more co-defendants were
presented (with Oregon cited),
assigned counsel, and
detained. On June 17
another co-defendant, Pereda,
was arrested in the Middle
District of Florida and
reserve there, requesting that
a bond hearing be held in New
York. On August 27 the
US Attorney's Office wrote in
that another case may be
related, involving Anti-Tren
attempted robberies in The
Bronx and Yonkers. That case
is US v. Palacios-Milano,
25-cr-392 (Vargas) On January 15,
another conference, Inner City
Press live tweeted here There are 21
co-defendants, they and their
lawyers are being introduced.
One had Cooley LLP, another
has Brod from Shapiro Arato
Bach. Former SDNY Ed Diskant
has a defendant. Judge: We're
here for a conference. I want
to disclose that I have dealt
with Mr. Brod Judge: Also
with Ms. Di Chiara, both with
the Federal Bar Council. Any
issues, raise them by Tuesday
at 12. AUSA: We aim to unseal
a superseding indictment later
this month with 20 or more new
counts, with new defendant J:
How many? A: A half dozen.
Death eligible AUSA: I
won't say more, to not tip off
some that may be at liberty.
Judge: These defendants have a
right to a Speedy Trial. You
can't just keep adding people
to the 20-some. Look at US v.
Black. AUSA: If they don't
consent to excluding time,
we'll set a trial date AUSA: We commit
that by Feb 20 we'll produce
the cell phones to the
discovery coordinator- Judge:
Is she here? No. Judge: I
ordered her to update me. But
she filed it in October in the
Judge Cote case, the Tren de
Aragua case. This is the anti
Tren de Aragua case AUSA: Most have
consented to cross production.
Judge: In October you had
unlocked 13 of 60 phones. Now?
AUSA: Now 20 or more. We use
brute force, and updates.
Judge: That's not very
impressive progress. AUSA:
It's a matter of cryptography.
Xavier
Donaldson: Discovery by March?
AUSA: Some of the evidence has
already been produced. Judge:
How many have you produced to
date? AUSA: As of October 3-
Judge: Nothing since then?
AUSA: As of then, 900
gigabytes Di Chiara: Nothing
since August Judge: Regardless
of superseder, discovery cut
off is April 1. Diskant: I
object to excluding time - I
will withdraw that, they
should produce as soon as they
have things. Judge: Yes!
Patel: The capital process
takes a long time Patel: The
Southern District Capital
Panel is of limited size- some
of us are already assigned-
Judge: The CJA Panel is only
so big, and we're hitting the
limit. Get it together and
file your superseder. Let's
set a conference after we know
about the death penalty Judge: April 17,
11 am On February 13,
six more defendants were
added, five of them in
custody: " 27 members of the
Anti-Tren faction of the
designated foreign terrorist
organization Tren de Aragua
(“TDAâ€) with offenses
including racketeering
conspiracy, murder in aid of
racketeering in connection
with an April 15, 2024, double
murder in the Bronx,
murder-for-hire conspiracy,
kidnapping in aid of
racketeering, sex trafficking
and sex trafficking
conspiracy, and other
offenses. 21 of the 27
defendants charged in the S4
Indictment were previously
charged in a 12-count
Indictment. Of the six
newly added defendants, five
are now in federal custody."
And the sixth? On March 3 a
co-defendant in the case pled
guilty: "Plea entered by
Wilfredo Jose Avendano
Carrizalez (18) Guilty as to
Count 10s." The first case is
USA v. Zambrano-Pacheco,
et al., 1:25-cr-76 (Vyskocil)
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Saturday, March 7, 2026
Man Arrested for Colorado Takeover Worried Not Safe Death Penalty Mulled 1 Pleads Guilty
