Trial of García Luna in the US: “The cartel had an infiltrator in the Mexican government”

First modification: 01/17/2023 – 12:03

The former Secretary of Security of Mexico Genaro García Luna, who led the war that the State still maintains today against drug trafficking, will be tried this Tuesday in New York accused of having helped the Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán cartel to introduce 53 tons of cocaine in United States.

He is the highest-ranking Mexican official to sit on a US justice bench. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of conspiring with members of the Sinaloa Cartel to export and distribute drugs in the United States between 2001 and 2012, as well as lying when in 2018 he applied for US nationality.

“Encouragement of a continued criminal enterprise”

“Mr. President, the Federal Police have arrested more than 90,000 alleged perpetrators of various crimes. There are 2,720 linked to the drug trafficking command structure ”: this is how Genaro García Luna concluded his duties, in 2012, as Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.

Arrested on December 4, 2019 in the southern United States, he is, for Mexico, the first former public official with significant national responsibility to be prosecuted abroad. But what is the US justice system accusing him of?

“These are charges dedicated to conspiracy and having committed acts in favor of a continuous criminal enterprise. This charge means carrying out acts that allow a criminal enterprise, in this case the Sinaloa Cartel, to develop and continue carrying out its criminal activities. In addition to conspiracy, there is the charge of belonging to the ongoing criminal enterprise, and of carrying out acts that aggravate the conduct so that this ongoing criminal enterprise will continue to operate with impunity and for profit and in a violent manner in the country. ”, explains the lawyer David Peña Guzmán, a teacher in International Law and a lawyer specializing in extraditions.

“Multiple testimonials”

Could the fact that you held working meetings with the US government be a defense argument? “On the contrary, because she never acted jointly with the United States government. In other words, the United States government did not have an infiltrator in the cartel, but rather the opposite, the cartel had an infiltrator in the Mexican government, taking advantage of the trust, using his position. He had access to information and had access to a series of means that an ordinary official would not have,” Peña Guzmán details.

Information that he probably transmitted to the Sinaloa Cartel: “There are multiple testimonies from witnesses protected by the United States government, according to which they were the ones who physically delivered millions and millions of dollars to the former Secretary of Public Security in exchange for immunity. And we don’t even know, because we haven’t heard the testimony out loud, but we will hear it in the coming days, if apart from this, the functions where there are federal or cabinet police used or were at the service of the cartel, which would be very delicate and sad”, emphasizes the lawyer.

The US justice alleges that starting in January 2001, he “became a member of the Sinaloa Cartel conspiracy,” helping him not to interfere in drug trafficking, informing him of police operations, arresting members of rival cartels, and placing other corrupt officials in influential positions of power. In return, he received “millions of dollars,” he says.

Arrested on December 4, 2019 in Dallas, state of Texas (south), García Luna has pleaded not guilty to the charges that could lead to a sentence of between 10 years in prison and life imprisonment.

And with the AFP