News 4 Now, Jan. 4

A former Mexican drug trafficker who once claimed he was a double agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration took center stage on Thursday against alleged infamous kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman at a U.S. trial. Vicente Zambada — the son of Chapo’s fellow Siniloa cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — became the latest in a parade of cooperators to testify as government witnesses in the conspiracy case against Guzman in federal court in Brooklyn. Like the others, he described the rampant violence and greed that accompanied Guzman’s rise to power atop the Sinaloa cartel. Lawyers for Guzman — who was sent to the United States in 2017 after gaining notoriety for twice escaping Mexican jails — have sought to portray the cooperators as shady opportunists willing to exaggerate their client’s involvement in the drug trade to earn breaks in their own cases. Anchor Natalie Pasquarella also reports on a sinkhole in Queens, a hiccup in a plan to avert the l-train shutdown and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s new moves.