Trial begins in the US for former Secretary of Security of Mexico

Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former Secretary of Public Security, will stand trial this Tuesday in the United States on charges that he accepted millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for helping the powerful Sinaloa cartel move drugs and avoid the capture of its members.

García Luna, who served under former President Felipe Calderón, is a tough-looking man who led the bloody war on drugs from 2006-2012.

The US attorney’s office alleges it was very apparent that he accepted tens of millions of dollars, often in briefcases. Evidence against him includes receipts, although it is unclear whether they were for official work, private sector consultancies, cartel payments or other bribes.

He also claims that he continued to live off his ill-gotten gains even after moving to the United States, where he was arrested in 2019, although his defense alleges that he was a legitimate businessman. The selection of the popular jury is expected to start on Tuesday.

The case could reveal how the cartels have been able to operate openly for so long: bribing the police and the military right down to the highest ranks.

“For decades, the political elites in Mexico, from all parties, have sought by all means that generals, security secretaries, police commanders, interior secretaries and senior officials colluded with drug traffickers be prosecuted and imprisoned in Mexican jails. ”, said Mexico security analyst David Saucedo. “The trial of García Luna in the United States breaks with that scheme.”

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has welcomed a trial that is expected to shed light on corruption in the Calderón government, whom the president accuses of stealing the presidency from him in 2006.

But López Obrador himself fought tooth and nail to prevent former Defense Secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos from being tried in the United States on similar charges in 2020, and went so far as to threaten to expel the agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). unless the general was returned to Mexico, as he ended up being.

Garcia Luna has pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and continued criminal enterprise. If he is convicted, he could spend decades in prison.

Awaiting the Brooklyn courthouse is a parade of government witnesses, including high-level cartel members, the likes of which has not been seen since Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison in 2019. Some of the accusations against García Luna arose during that process.

“While holding public office, (García Luna) used his position to assist the Sinaloa cartel…At trial, the government expects numerous witnesses, including several former high-ranking members of the Sinaloa cartel, to testify about the bribes paid to the defendant. in exchange for protection,” US Attorney Breon Peace wrote in a court document last week.

“In exchange for these bribes, the defendant provided the Sinaloa cartel with, among other things, safe passage for their drug shipments, confidential information from authorities on cartel investigations, and information on rival cartels,” Peace said.

“These payments allowed the cartel to sometimes receive advance notice of operations by security forces to detain members and allowed them to be released if they were detained,” he added.

Before sentencing Guzmán in 2019, jurors in the New York trial heard how Jesús Zambada, a former member of the criminal organization, testified that he had personally made payments of at least $6 million to García Luna, on behalf of his brother. major, the head of the cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The group is now believed to be led by Zambada and at least three of Guzmán’s sons, one of whom was arrested earlier this month based on a US extradition request.

García Luna is not the first high-ranking Mexican official arrested for his relationship with drug trafficking. Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, who was named drug czar by President Ernesto Zedillo in 1996, was arrested a year later after it was discovered that he was living in a luxury apartment owned by Juárez cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

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