(New York) The exceptional trial of a Mexican ex-minister for trafficking cocaine to the United States ended on Wednesday in New York, the jury having to decide whether or not Genaro Garcia Luna was or was not for ten years a “criminal partner of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel.
Since January 17, the prosecution has brought 26 prosecution witnesses to federal court in Brooklyn, nine of whom are accused of drug trafficking, extradited to the United States for trial and to collaborate with justice in order to obtain reduced penalties.
“I’m not asking you to love them. They are criminals, they have done terrible things. But you have to get to know them, ”prosecuted prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy pleaded before the jurors on Wednesday.
His colleague at the US Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Erin Reid, called Garcia Luna a “two-faced man”: while “he was meeting (former President) Barack Obama (in the 2010s), he was working with the cartel of Sinaloa”.
The name of Mr. Garcia Luna, a former figure in the fight against drugs in Mexico, is also known, especially in France, because he was involved in the Florence Cassez case in the 2000s.
Minister of Public Security in the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), he was arrested on December 9, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. Imprisoned since, Genaro Garcia Luna is accused of having been corrupted to protect the Sinaloa cartel and of being involved in the trafficking of at least 53 tons of cocaine from Mexico to the United States from 2001 to 2012.
“Use common sense and find him guilty,” urged Mr.me Komatireddy accusing Mr. Garcia Luna of having “accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel” of which he was their “criminal partner”.
For his lawyer Cesar de Castro, on the contrary, there is “no proof that he received money” and “the absence of proof is not proof”.
The 54-year-old is the highest-ranking Mexican official to stand trial in federal justice in New York, at war with Central and South American drug cartels that take advantage of the complicity of local ministers to flood the drug market. UNITED STATES.
It was this Brooklyn court that sentenced former Sinaloa chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to life in prison in 2019.
Since October 2020, Mr. Garcia Luna has pleaded not guilty. He faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, up to life.
The jury, which must begin to deliberate, should decide on Thursday or Friday.