After 36 months of being detained in Dallas by the Marshals Service United States, Genaro Garcia Lunathe secretary of Public Security of the president Felipe Calderón, who designed the 360-degree fight against drug cartelswill go to trial accused of having received bribes fromthe Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for protection. Strategic jury selection began yesterday at the Eastern District Court in Brooklyn that will last this week, but there is something even more important, the motions of the prosecution and the defending that he Judge Brian Cogan has not resolved. From what fails, the course of the trial can be anticipated.
García Luna was arrested on December 9, 2019 in compliance with an arrest warrant issued five days earlier for participating in a international cocaine distribution conspiracy, conspiring to possess and distribute cocaine, conspiring to import cocaine, and making false statements on your naturalization application. Later a fifth was added, conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel by receiving bribes in exchange for legal protection.
García Luna has denied the accusations, and at no time did he seek to negotiate to be a protected witness for the United States in exchange for some benefit. He has always said he is innocent and he will seek to prove it in the trial that will take approximately three months, whose public expectation is that he could uncover several sewers, although depending on which side is seen, it would affect the government of calderon or the president’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorfrom his time as head of government of the Mexico City.
The trial of the ex-secretary, said in his motion in limine -which is raised at the beginning of the process as a definition of its course- on January 10 of this year the chief defense attorney, Cesar de Castrois “determine if garcia moon was an ally of the government of USA in the fight against transnational drug trafficking, or an ally of the drug cartels”. The prosecutor Breon Peace filed his cross motion in limine two days later, questioning the defense’s attempt to prevent, as it wishes, evidence of his “Activities as a private citizen after you moved to the United States, including proving your fortune after you left government in 2012.
The prosecution does not want garcia moon proves your relationship with law enforcement officials and agencies USA in the fight against the cartels, of his meetings and the awards he received from that government, and that it be reduced to the witnesses that the prosecution will present -the names of all of them and they are known to the defense but they are not public-, where the most of them, said De castro, “They were detained in Mexico and extradited to the United States while he was a public official.”
Peace and his team want to prove that García Luna conspired with the Sinaloa Cartel for 18 years, that involves the trafficking of 50 tons of cocaine to the United States, using their positions in the Mexican government to further the activities of that criminal organization in exchange for a bribe of three to five million dollars that Luis El Rey Zambada gave him in suitcases in a restaurant, who was responsible for the square in the Mexico Cityand that he orally made the accusation during the trial of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman in the same Court in 2018. In his motion, the prosecutor explained:
“Evidence of the defendant’s activities after 2012 is critical and direct evidence of the crimes charged in the indictment. It is also strong evidence of the defendant’s motive for accepting bribes from the Sinaloa cartel and of the knowledge, ability, opportunity and preparation to conceal those bribes”.
The defense, in opposing the disclosure of his income earned after 2012, noted since April 2022, the US government has produced more than a million pages and audio recordings for the case, which “have little or no relationship to García Luna.” The prosecution maintains the value of this evidence, which it will accompany with its witnesses, which, in addition to drug traffickers, probably include journalists and former Mexican officials. He also noted his bewilderment at the motion to have it dismissed. “the indictment on the grounds that any conspiracy with the Sinaloa Cartel was withdrawn when he left public office in 2012.” The defense has said, affirming without conceding any crime, that those for which they accuse him prior to that year, already prescribed.
In his motion last week, De Castro asked Judge Cogan to ask the prosecution to make known the statements that García Luna made after his arrest, having waived their Miranda rights, detainees are always read to refrain from saying anything that could be used against them in court. The defense pointed out something that seems inconsistent: the police officers who arrested him did not record the statements because “the agents stated that the recording system did not work correctly.”
The motions are essential for the development and fate of the trial, where the arguments of both parties will be heard. But if Judge Cogan determines that garcia moon cannot present as proof of innocence his work for years collaborating with the government of USA and the acknowledgments for it, it will hardly come out ahead of Brooklyn and will face the possibility of life in prison. This path opens another route. Yes garcia moon you think you lost the case before you started, you can use the Court in Brooklyn to talk about everything he knows about the relationship of officials and former officials with organized crime, particularly the Sinaloa cartel.
There is no certainty for either party what will happen during the trial and how many sensitive things can be publicly ventilated. The only clear thing at this moment, that In addition, the governments of Mexico and the United States will be in the dock.
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