"So in most of the drug cases, either a prosecutor or a sentencing judge or some advocate identified people who were relatively minor players or who had gotten a disproportionate sentence."
Siewert, asked about cases such as Vignali's, said he did not remember any specific cases but added: "We tried to make a judgment on the merits."
Although Vignali family members themselves may not have tried to influence the process directly, others weighed in early on. After Carlos was convicted, and during the legal appeals process, Minnesota authorities were deluged with phone calls and letters from California political figures inquiring about the case and urging leniency, they said.
"There was a lot of influence, oh yes," said Andrew Dunne, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Vignali in Minnesota. "We would receive periodic calls from state representatives in California calling on behalf of Carlos after the sentencing.
Dunne, who said he interpreted some of the more persistent calls as "perhaps improper influence," said he could not remember whether the California politicians were based in Sacramento or Washington. But "they wanted to know: Is there anything that could be done to help reduce the sentence?"
Horacio Vignali said he did not know who made such calls and had "no idea why they did that."
In a two-year investigation, state and federal law enforcement authorities used wiretaps and raids to break a drug ring that transported more than 800 pounds of cocaine from California to Minnesota, where it was converted to crack for sale on the street.
Detectives learned that Vignali, a rapper wannabe who called himself "C-Low," played a central role in the enterprise. He provided the money to buy the cocaine in Los Angeles, where it was then shipped to Minnesota by mail.
Tony Adams, one of the police detectives who worked on the case, said Vignali "was making big money" from the ring. "Let me put it like this," he said, citing wiretaps: "This kid went to Las Vegas and would lose $200,000 at Caesar's Palace and it was no big deal.
"He had a condo in Encino worth over $240,000. And yet his tax records showed he was only making $30,000 at his dad's auto body shop."
Most of the defendants pleaded guilty and received prison sentences, but Vignali and two Minneapolis men went on trial.
