United States.- The Judge Brian Coganwho will judge Genaro Garcia Lunaa former Mexican security secretary, released a document listing the names of several possible cooperating witnesses, including Jesus “The King” Zambada.
Journalist keegan hamilton detailed that “There is an apparent reference to Jesús Reynaldo Zambada García, also known as “El Rey”, brother of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
“’The King’ testified during the trial” of Joaquin Guzman Loera‘El Chapo’ and He claimed to have personally delivered a multimillion-dollar cash bribe to García Luna.”
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Other possible witnesses are Sergio Villarreal Barraganalias “The big one”who was leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel and protected witness in the US, and Edgar Veytiaalias “The devil”a former Nayarit prosecutor who protected the H-2 cartel.
barragan “he was arrested in Mexico in 2010 (when García Luna was still in office) and extradited to the United States in 2012”Hamilton recalled.
‘El Diablo’ “was arrested in 2017 and accused of cartel corruption, he is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in the US.”
“’El Rey’ declared before the jury in Brooklyn that he made at least two payments to guarantee the protection of his brother, ‘El Mayo’, and prevent him from being arrested.
According to Zambada’s version, the first bribe was delivered in a restaurant in 2005 and amounted to 3 million dollars.
At that time, García Luna directed the now extinct Federal Investigation Agency. The second bribe ranged between 3 and 5 million dollars and occurred in 2007 when García Luna was already Secretary of Public Security.
The capo implied that the source of the money was ‘El Mayo’ and that the objective was for the security forces to avoid “interfering in the drug trafficking operations of the cartel,” as well as his arrest,” recalled Elías Camhaji in El País in July 2022.
The document also mentions Miguel Arriola Marqueza Mexican drug trafficker who in 2012 was sentenced to 20 years in prison, after reaching a plea bargain in Colorado.
One of the most shocking elements in the document issued by Cogan is the mention of a potential witness accused of practicing “cannibalism.”
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However, Judge Cogan barred the subject of cannibalism from being mentioned due to its “highly inflammatory and distracting nature”.
The same judge who tried “El Chapo”, Brian Cogan, will try García Luna, who left the government of Mexico in 2012 and settled in the United States
jury ready
After three days of interviews with close to 200 candidates, the jury that will try García Luna for drug trafficking in a New York court as of Monday was constituted.
After answering questions about her ability to be impartial, personal problems or hearing her opinion on drugs and reliability in the justice system, the judge Peggy Kuo selected seven women and five men who will make up the jury, as well as six substitutes.
The 18 members are required to attend every day for the estimated eight weeks of the trial.which sits on the bench the highest-ranking Mexican official appearing before a US court, accused of five counts, including drug trafficking, which could lead him to spend the rest of his days in jail.
Although García Luna, dressed in a suit and tie and with white hair, has attended jury selection since Tuesday, the trial begins on Monday with the arguments of the prosecution and the defense.
According to the New York prosecutor’s office, who was director of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) between 2001 and 2005 and secretary of Public Security under the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), helped the Sinaloa cartel and its boss, Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán (sentenced to life imprisonment by US justice), to introduce 53 tons of cocaine into the United States, becoming one more “member” of the conspiracy.
The same judge who tried “El Chapo”, Brian Cogan, will judge García Luna, who left the government of Mexico in 2012 and settled in the United States, whose nationality he requested in 2018.
The name of García Luna is also linked to that of the French Florence Cassez and her ex-partner Ismael Vallartaarrested in 2005 in an operation prepared for the media, for leading an alleged network of kidnappers.
The case brought diplomatic relations with France to the brink of rupture. Cassez was released in 2013 but Vallarta is still being held without 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.
Mention is also made of Alex Cifuentesa Colombian trafficker who testified against “El Chapo”.
Cifuentes was his “right and left hand” between 2007-2008 and who lived in the Sinaloa mountains with Guzmán Loera during that period.
With information from AFP
