The president of MexicoAndrés Manuel López Obrador, said this Wednesday that the guilty plea in USA of the former Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna (2006-2012) “helps to clean up corruption” in the country, although “it is barely the beginning”.
“(The trial) helps to continue cleaning up corruption in Mexico. Of course, more is needed, this is just the beginning, it is a good contribution, but the contribution could be greater, ”she assured in her daily press conference, quoted by the agency efe.
Morning press conference, from the National Palace https://t.co/xpb5W2g8SZ
– Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 22, 2023
García Luna, who was the right hand of former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and leader of the so-called “war on drugs”, was found guilty on Tuesday.
The unanimous verdict read in a federal court in New York indicated that García Luna committed the five crimes for which he was tried during four weeks, including conspiracy for drug trafficking and organized crime.
Although the jury made up of 12 citizens (seven women and five anonymous men) deliberated in secret, it has been reported that during that process they asked to review different testimonies to issue their verdict.
One of them, according to report of BBCwas the last witness called by prosecutors: Jesús “El Rey” Zambada, the brother of a leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
The King assured that in 2006, when García Luna was directing the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and was about to pass to the Mexican cabinet, he paid him two bribes for a total of 5 million dollars so that the Sinaloa cartel would have protection. of the government.
Mexico asks the US for the extradition of former Secretary of Public Security
Zambada, who served a 12-year prison sentence in the US and was released under supervision, also indicated that he paid Víctor Hugo García, García Luna’s nephew, $350,000 to be placed in the sub-prosecutor’s office against organized crime in Mexico Edgar Bayardo, who passed confidential government information to the cartel.
“García Luna, once at the pinnacle of Mexican law enforcement, will now live out the rest of his days as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle the cartels. of drugs,” said prosecutor Breon Peace in Brooklyn, quoted by the BBC.
