The ex-president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa it took almost seven hours to react to the verdict of a US jury that found the former Secretary of Public Safety guilty of drug trafficking and other crimes, Genaro Garcia Lunawho was in charge of the fight against organized crime during his government.
“As President of Mexico, I fought with all determination against crime, with the law in hand, without giving truce or distinguishing between groups. I never negotiated or agreed with criminals. I never used the presidential inauguration to advocate for their interests,” said the former president in a two-page statement that he shared on his social networks on Tuesday night.
Calderón Hinojosa warned that the resolution released in a New York court against the former federal official “do not demerit the fight“who led against the organized crime.
“I am a man of laws and I respect the resolutions of the courts that act in accordance with the Law; in my performance as President of Mexico and throughout my life I have always been on the side of justice and the law, and I will always be on the side of the victims,” he said after Garcia Luna became the first former highest-ranking Mexican official to sit on the US bench, accused of protecting the Sinaloa cartel Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán in exchange for million-dollar bribes to send drugs to the United States from 2001 to 2012.
The PAN member also recalled that during his government he fought those who “threaten Mexico,” including the Pacific Cartel. “Proof of this is that the confessed criminals who have been used as witnesses were also, for the most part, persecuted, detained and extradited by my government.”
Calderon Hinojosa He insisted that the State “must use its power to fight crime and not to make factious use of justice and intimidate critics and opponents.”
This Tuesday afternoon, the formerly called “super policeman”, who was in charge of the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico, during the Calderón government, was found guilty on the five charges against him, including trafficking cocaine with various persons and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Federal prosecutors from the New York district of Brooklyn declared that the former federal official accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the cartel once led by “El Chapo” Guzmanin exchange for protection against arrests, safe-conduct for cocaine shipments and leads on police operations.
After the verdict was announced, legislators from Brunette in the Chamber of Deputies they stood up from their seats in the legislative palace of San Lázaro to express their approval and shout in chorus “Keep going Calderón”, while holding signs that said “Felipe Calderón not only knew, he was an accomplice”.
During a four-week trial, the jury heard from nine convicted cartel members who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation and testified about the bribes García Luna received. Saritha Komatireddy, a prosecutor, told the jury that the cartel could not have shipped drugs without her complicity.
Among the statements in this case, that of the former prosecutor of Nayarit, Edgar Veytia, stood out, who assured that, in 2011, former president Calderón and García Luna, gave the order to protect the leader Sinaloa cartelin addition to not interfering in the struggle they had with the Beltrán Leyva group.
According to what was expressed by Veytia, the former security secretary, and Felipe Calderon they would have met with Ney González, then governor of Nayarit, in Mexico City to order him to support El Chapo.
The lawyers of garcia moon they argued that US prosecutors relied on inconsistent narratives from convicted violent criminals implicating him to get revenge on the man who arrested them and in an attempt to reduce their US prison sentences.
Defense attorney César de Castro portrayed García Luna as a hard-working family man and said his accusers had “incredible reasons to lie.”
Investigating Judge Brian Cogan was in charge of reading the unanimous verdict of the jury, which he reached after three days of deliberations.
The sentence will be announced on June 27, the judge announced. The defense now has 45 days to appeal the jury’s decision.
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