(Justin Lane/EFE)
In his statement, Martínez Sánchez mentioned the raids on two of his cocaine warehouses in New York and one in Chicago.
The former head of Public Security in Mexico during the era of President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) is accused of four crimes related to drug trafficking: participating in a criminal enterprise, conspiracy for the international distribution of cocaine, conspiracy for the distribution and possession of cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.
The Prosecutor’s Office hopes to convince the members of the jury “beyond a reasonable doubt” that, ultimately, García Luna is responsible for that sale of cocaine in the United States because he actively collaborated with the criminal gang.
At first, the Prosecutor’s Office wanted to use the testimony of Martínez Sánchez to point out García Luna again as the target of bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, but finally had to give it up due to the rejection of Judge Brian Cogan, who considered that there was not enough material to make that connection. So, the government lawyers focused on trying to prove that the drug dealers from the Sinaloa clan were selling their drugs in the United States.
The Prosecutor’s Office closed the day and the week -there will be no hearing on Thursday and Friday-, with the testimony of a small New York trafficker of Dominican origin, identified as Héctor Tolentino, who sold different types of drugs in New York that he received from a trafficker of the Mexican cartel, before being arrested in 2019.
During the testimony of Tolentino, 31, who appeared dressed in a prison uniform, the Prosecutor’s Office showed a video that his partner from the Sinaloa Cartel, identified as “Don Manuel”, had sent him and in which a narcocorrido is heard speaking to take the drug from Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, to New York.
García Luna, who this Wednesday delivered several dirty shirts to his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, was animated as in previous hearings and spared no smiles, greetings to his defense team and, in particular, to team leader César de Castro, whom he hugged before leaving the room.
(EFE)
In this first week, the Prosecutor’s Office began to call its witnesses. The first and most forceful witness was the Sinaloa Cartel narco, now repentant, Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias “El Grande”, who claimed to have witnessed the payment of bribes to García Luna, by the capo Arturo Beltrán Leyva, leader of the Sinaloan faction of the Beltrán Leyva Brothers.
According to “El Grande”, in exchange for monthly payments that ranged between 1.5 million, first, and that reached 3 million dollars, García Luna provided the Cartel with information, help to fight against rival factions and guaranteed the appointment of commanders related security throughout the country.
“El Grande” went so far as to describe bribing the former Mexican Public Security Minister as the Sinaloa cartel’s best investment.
For its part, the defense has stuck to its strategy of arguing that the Prosecutor’s Office does not have any objective “evidence” against its client, such as documents, recordings or photographs. And that, he argues, the case is based on “rumors” and “speculations by murderers, kidnappers and drug traffickers”, who only seek revenge on whoever was most responsible for combating drug trafficking and benefit from reduced sentences for collaborating with the US government.
