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New York (AFP) – The Mexican Genaro García Luna, the architect of the war against organized crime in Mexico, sits as of this Tuesday on the bench of justice in New York to answer for five charges, including drug trafficking, which can lead him to pass the rest of his days in jail.
The trial of the former Secretary of Security in the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), the highest-ranking Mexican official to appear before a US court, begins with the selection of the jury for at least two days in the Federal District Court of Brooklyn that will determine the fate of this 54-year-old mechanical engineer by training over eight weeks.
García Luna is accused of five counts, including participating in an ongoing criminal enterprise, conspiring to traffic cocaine and lying to authorities when he applied for US citizenship in 2018.
According to the prosecution, the one who was director of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) between 2001 and 2005 and later Secretary of Public Security (2006-2012) under the government of Felipe Calderón, helped the Sinaloa cartel and its boss, Joaquín ” Chapo” Guzmán, to introduce 53 tons of cocaine into the United States, becoming one more “member” of the conspiracy.
The “super policeman” -the Federal Police was under his command- would have helped the Chapo cartel, who carried out a notorious escape when he was responsible for Security, turning a blind eye to his activities, warning him of police operations, arresting members of rival cartels and placing other corrupt officials in influential positions of power in exchange for “millions of dollars.”
Arrested on December 4, 2019 in Dallas, Texas, the name of García Luna arose during the trial of Chapo Guzmán (sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States) led by the same judge who will now judge him: Brian Cogan.
The then member of the Sinaloa cartel Jesús “Rey” Zambada recounted in the trial that he had delivered suitcases with between six and eight million dollars in bribes to the then official in a restaurant between 2005 and 2007.
“Relevant Judgment”
The trial of García Luna “is important because it is the most relevant trial that has resulted so far from the trial of Chapo Guzmán,” investigative journalist Peniley Ramírez, author of the book “Los millonarios de la guerra” declared a crime, told AFP. organized by President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), which has left more than 340,000 dead, plunging the country into an unprecedented wave of violence.
“It will be presided over by the same judge, in the same court, and it will be led by a person who was at the same time a high-ranking official in Mexico and a great ally of the United States government,” he maintains.
The defense team, led by lawyer César de Castro, wants to focus its strategy on the “congratulations and awards” it received in the United States for its “efforts” to combat the Mexican drug cartels and on its “close relationship” with the US security forces.
When he left the government of Mexico in 2012, he settled in the United States, whose nationality he applied for in 2018.
According to Ramírez, the “business” that security in Mexico became in the war against organized crime brought García Luna huge benefits thanks to his alleged participation in companies in the field that obtained contracts with the government.
The name of García Luna is also linked to that of the French Florence Cassez and her ex-partner Ismael Vallarta, arrested in an operation prepared for the media, for their alleged participation in kidnappings, in a case that brought relations to the brink of rupture. diplomatic with France. After 6 years in prison, Cassez was released but Vallarta has been detained for almost 20 years, without a trial.
The current government of Mexico, which has requested his extradition to the United States, also accuses him of diverting more than 200 million dollars from the treasury to his family’s companies.
© 2023 AFP
