Almonte, of Elmwood Park, is a naturalized citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic.
"Criminals pray to La Santa Muerte to protect them from law enforcement, " Almonte said.
Almonte has visited shrines throughout Mexico, and given workshops to law enforcement agencies on the cult of the saint.
Almonte, 23, batted .276 with four homers, 25 RBIs and 30 steals in 78 games for Double-A Trenton last season.
James Patton, who is representing Almonte, said he had conducted a coordinated defense with Cohen, and the two would continue that way for the sentencing.
They include General Jose Almonte, the national security adviser, who is probably the closest to the president, and one of the keenest advocates of amending the constitution.
The charge Alessa and Almonte each pleaded to could carry up to life in prison, but they face 15 to 30 years under the terms of the plea agreement.
U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte in West Texas said he has testified about La Santa Muerte in at least five drug trafficking cases where her image aided prosecutors with convictions.
Last year, Almonte testified that a Santa Muerte statue prayer card, found with a kilogram of methamphetamine in a couple's car in New Mexico, were "tools of the trade" for drug traffickers to protect them from law enforcement.
An undercover officer from the NYPD posing as a devout Muslim met Alessa, a Muslim by birth, and Almonte, a Muslim convert, in 2009 while circulating among men with radical leanings in the New York City area, according to investigators.
In a hearing to discuss the sentencing that's shaping up to be a multi-day proceeding, attorneys for Mohamed Alessa and Carlos Almonte sparred with a government attorney over the significance of a fight that occurred in July between the two defendants and another inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where they are being held.
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