SLOW START AT TEXAS
SATURDAY DECEMBER 12, 2015
FREE
SHAKA SMART’S LONGHORNS PREPARE FOR NO. 3 UNC SATURDAY, 1B
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
ZETAS DRUG CARTEL
OIL & GAS
Businessman guilty
Oil prices slump again
By JASON BUCH SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
COLORADO
AUSTIN — A jury here took less than two hours Thursday to find Mexican businessman Francisco Colorado Cessa guilty of conspiring to launder money for the notorious Zetas drug cartel. Prosecutors hailed the decision as a blow to a criminal underworld that relies on legitimate businessmen and to the family that leads one of Mexico’s
most feared gangs. Over eight days of testimony, judges heard from a number of drug traffickers and cartel operatives who said the Zetas relied on people like Colorado to convert dirty money into funds they could use freely. That’s why the U.S. government went after Colorado, who wasn’t directly involved in the drug trade, prosecutors said. “The businessmen are a conduit for these guys,” Assistant U.S. Attorney
Douglas Gardner said after the verdict was read. “I think it’s important to focus on how they’re also launderuing money in the United States.” Colorado faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced at a later date. According to the testimony, Colorado met a founding member of the Zetas through quarter horse races in his home state, and eventually became close to Miguel Treviño Morales, the gang’s
leader who’s jailed in Mexico. Treviño had a scheme to launder tens of millions of dollars through a quarter horse breeding and racing operation in the U.S. run by his older brother, José, and needed clean front men in this country to pay for horses at auction. Prosecutors showed that Colorado had purchased horses that later ended up in José Trevi-
BLOOMBERG
MEZCAL IS A HIT IN TEXAS
Photo by Louis DeLuca | AP
In this photo taken Dec. 3, part of the agave-spirits collection is displayed at Mexican Sugar, at the Shops at Legacy in Plano.
Popularity of spirit has spiked THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Photo by Louis DeLuca | AP
In this photo taken Dec. 1, Taylor Samuels pours a drink during a Mezcal tasting party at Shad Kvetko’s home in Dallas.
DALLAS — He found what he was looking for in a sip of mezcal. Shad Kvetko had been exploring the growing range of quality tequilas when he found his image of Mexico’s other agave-based spirit suddenly upended. Until then, his idea of mezcal was the gimmicky bottle with a worm in it. “I tried that years ago, and it was just terrible,” he told
The Dallas Morning News. “But for a time, that’s all you could get.” Then, several years ago, the Dallas antiques collector and dealer visited Austin’s Bar Ilegal, at the time a tiny hole-in-the wall featuring the mezcal brand of the same name. “That flavor in my mouth — I was like, that’s what I want,” Kvetko recalled. “It’s just a more interesting experience.” Around Texas and across the country, craftcocktail enthusiasts and li-
By MARK SHENK
See ZETAS PAGE 12A
CRAFT-COCKTAIL RENAISSANCE
By MARC RAMIREZ AND ALFREDO CORCHADO
Global surplus to last until late 2016
Oil declined to the lowest level since 2008 in London amid estimates that OPEC’s decision to scrap production limits will keep the market oversupplied. Brent futures capped the biggest weekly decline in more than a year. The global surplus will persist at least until late 2016 as demand growth slows and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries shows “renewed determination” to maximize production, the International Energy Agency said Friday. The group chose not to curb output at its Dec. 4 meeting. Oil prices have slumped to levels not seen since the global financial crisis as a result of OPEC’s strategy to defend market share against higher-cost producers. The group’s production rose to a three-year high in November, it said in a report Thursday, as surging Iraqi volumes more than offset a slight pullback by Saudi Arabia. "The hits keep on coming," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. "It was bad enough that the OPEC meeting ended in disarray with no quota. Now we’re seeing just how aggressively everyone is fighting for market share."
New Lows
quor aficionados are enjoying the growing number of Mexican spirits appearing on the shelves of U.S. bars and spirits retailers. While still small in terms of market share, mezcal is quickly climbing, a $126 million industry compared with $10 million a decade ago. Meanwhile, tequila’s popularity has boomed as the spirit sheds its reputation as college-party shot; the U.S. now drinks twice as much tequila as Mexico,
Brent for January settlement declined $1.80, or 4.5 percent, to $37.93 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was the lowest close since Dec. 24, 2008. The contract decreased 12 percent this week. The volume of all futures traded was 36 percent above the 100-day average at 3:05 p.m. in New York. West Texas Intermediate
See MEZCAL PAGE 10A
See OIL PAGE 12A
ASSOCIATED PRESS-GFK POLL
Voters like Trump’s decisiveness By EMILY SWANSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Republicans don’t see Donald Trump as likable or compassionate, but he’s viewed by Republican registered voters as their party’s most decisive, most competent and most electable candidate, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Here are some things to know about public opinion on the presidential candidates from the poll: TRUMP TOPS ON DECISIVENESS, COMPETENCE
Eight in 10 Republican registered voters called Trump very or somewhat decisive, while more than 6 in 10 called him very or somewhat competent. Trump is far atop the field on decisiveness. Of the other four Republican candidates tested in the poll, Ted Cruz came closest, with 56 percent calling him very or somewhat decisive, followed by Ben Carson at 53 percent, Marco Rubio at 52 percent and Jeb Bush at just 42. The poll was taken before Trump called for a ban on Muslims coming into the U.S.
Just 31 percent of Republican voters said Trump is at least somewhat compassionate, and 43 percent said he is at least somewhat likable. Carson was viewed as most compassionate and likable, with 7 in 10 Republican voters saying each word describes him at least somewhat well. But while 9 in 10 Republican voters said decisiveness and competence are extremely or very important in a candidate for president, just 6 in 10 said compassion is that important, and only half said it’s that important for a candidate
to be likable. Nine in 10 Republican voters also agreed honesty is an important quality in a presidential candidate, but they were more divided on whether that’s a description that applies to Trump. Fifty-five percent said “honest” describes him very or somewhat well, and 43 percent said only slightly or not at all well. Bush, Rubio and Cruz didn’t perform significantly better. Carson, on the other hand, was viewed as at least somewhat honest by 66 percent
See TRUMP PAGE 10A
Photo by Susan Walsh | AP
In this Dec. 3 photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Washington.