First modification:
The United States Attorney’s Office presented new evidence against the former Secretary (Minister) of Public Security of Mexico, Genaro García Luna, in which he affirms that he tried to harass and bribe journalists who investigated his crimes, in addition to manipulating witnesses. This evidence, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, is related to the accusations against him for drug trafficking and for lying to the US authorities.
The United States Attorney’s Office requested this Thursday, June 16, the judge to admit new evidence -audio recordings- against the former Secretary (Minister) of Public Security of Mexico, Genaro García Luna, accused of conspiring to traffic cocaine to allegedly help the cartel of Sinaloa, which would demonstrate “the defendant’s attempts to silence journalists through harassment and bribery, and his willingness to manipulate witnesses.”
U.S. prosecutors say Garcia Luna, arrested in 2019 in Dallas, Texas and charged with drug trafficking in New York, spoke in jail with another prisoner about using violence and manipulating witnesses who speak against him.
The US Attorney’s Office asks in the letter addressed to the judge on Wednesday, June 15 “that they can introduce evidence in this regard during the process”, since according to their version “they are directly related to the main accusations against García Luna”.
👉 The US Prosecutor’s Office requested a request for evidence to present documents stating that Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security, bribed journalists and also tried to silence witnesses. https://t.co/h42jYDTrVx
– Political Animal (@Pajaropolitico) June 16, 2022
“The defendant threatened, harassed and bribed journalists who were investigating his crimes and who, after his arrest, showed his willingness to manipulate witnesses,” says the document presented by the Prosecutor’s Office.
In the documents in which the prosecutors of the Eastern District Court of New York claim to have evidence against García Luna, are:
1- That between 2008 and 2013, the former Secretary of Security harassed and threatened a journalist as a result of an investigation into him.
two- That between 2009 and 2010 García Luna used money obtained from corruption to pay bribes to a “news organization” in order to prevent journalists from that organization from publishing negative stories about him.
“The evidence on the defendant’s efforts to silence journalists serves to explain how he was able to help the Sinaloa cartel with corruption for years without being detected or arrested,” says the Prosecutor’s Office.
3- That after his arrest for the case being prosecuted in the United States, the politician had telephone conversations “in which the accused spoke about threats of violence and witness manipulation against him, and referred to at least one witness by name “. One of them, according to the prosecution, is Jesús ‘El Rey’ Zambada, a former head of the Sinaloa Cartel who participated as a witness for the United States Attorney’s Office in the case against drug trafficker Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.
According to the AP agency, “during the trial of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 in New York, the jury heard Zambada testify that he personally delivered at least six million dollars to García Luna in clandestine payments in the name of his older brother, the head of the cartel, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada”.
How did the prosecution collect the evidence?
In an excerpt from those audio conversations attached by prosecutors, García Luna appears to be speaking to an unidentified interlocutor about the possibility of killing the witnesses and their families.
Prosecutors said that US officials “even gave the other prisoner -with whom García Luna was speaking- the telephone number of an undercover agent of the Russian mafia so that the prisoner could give it to García Luna”, AP reference; and that the prisoner is named in the documents as “Individual 1”.
The alleged conversation occurred in November 2020, prosecutors say, asking to be able to take it to trial so that the jury can hear it. According to the explanation of the prosecutors, the undercover agent would be the person who would carry out the violence or threats against witnesses.
Who is Genaro Garcia Luna?
The 53-year-old former official, who claims to be innocent, was Secretary of Public Security between 2006 and 2012 in the government of former President Felipe Calderón. In addition, he directed the defunct Federal Investigation Agency of Mexico, in charge of fighting corruption and organized crime. If convicted, he would face a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
The charges against him include conspiracy to distribute cocaine, participation in an ongoing criminal enterprise, and lying to authorities. He is also accused in the United States of receiving millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for the criminal organization being able to operate at will.
President of Mexico asks that they reveal all the evidence
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked the US Attorney’s Office this Thursday to reveal the recordings in which the former secretary allegedly bribes and threatens the media, arguing that the facts should be known.
“Let nothing else remain in the courts, in the files, because this helps to improve public life, to purify public life, transparency,” the president said during his daily press conference, adding that “we do not want close, (we want) everything to be ventilated, that public life be increasingly public and more in these matters that harm so much, because we are talking about the safety of citizens, ”he insisted.
López Obrador linked this case to the war against drug trafficking declared by then President Felipe Calderón in December 2006.
With AP, EFE and local media
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