Mexico City.- Jesús Reynaldo Zambada García, “El Rey Zambada”, capo of the Sinaloa Cartel, appears in Brooklyn federal court in the trial of former Secretary of Public Safety, Genaro García Luna.
Zambada confirmed that he delivered two payments for 5 million dollars – one of 3 million dollars and another of 5 million dollars – to García Luna at the Champs-Élysées restaurant, located on Paseo de la Reforma, in front of the United States Embassy in Mexico.
Brother of Ismael “El Mayo Zambada”, the top leader of the criminal organization, “El Rey” is considered by prosecutors as a key witness because in 2018 he revealed that he personally paid million-dollar bribes to the former police commander.
“El Rey Zambada”, who was the cartel’s envoy to Mexico City, was in charge of operations at the capital’s airport and maintaining a protection network that included payments to local and federal police, as well as officials of the then Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (PGR).
Of the payments made to García Luna, he said that one of them was made in a restaurant in Mexico City and it was so that he would not intervene in the cartel’s operations.
The other, he said at the time, was for him to appoint a commander who worked for the cartel as head of the Federal Police in Culiacán.
“El Rey Zambada” also said on that occasion that he learned that the different bosses that made up the Sinaloa Cartel had cooperated to give García Luna a bribe of 50 million dollars that would have been delivered via the Beltrán Leyva brothers.
It is expected that this Monday the boss will ratify his statements and contribute to providing evidence against the former police commander, who is accused of three charges for drug trafficking, one for organized crime and one more for lying to the immigration authorities.
Zambada would be the 26th witness that appears in Court and would close the testimonies offered by the prosecution.
