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#trending | Mexico’s ex-public security chief convicted in US drug case – ABC News: US
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Genaro García Luna, former Mexican cupboard member and head of federal police, was convicted in New York of taking large bribes to guard drug cartels. Ex-smugglers and officers testified he took cartel money, met with traffickers, and saved legislation enforcement away. He faces 20 years to life in jail and a Mexican authorities lawsuit for $700 million.
NEW YORK — A former Mexican presidential cupboard member was convicted in the U.S. on Tuesday of taking large bribes to guard the violent drug cartels he was tasked with combating. Beneath tight security, an anonymous New York federal court docket jury deliberated three days earlier than reaching a verdict in the drug trafficking case in opposition to former Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna. He is the very best-rating present or former Mexican official ever to be tried in the United States. García Luna, who denied the allegations, headed Mexico’s federal police after which was its top public security official from 2006 to 2012. His legal professionals stated the costs have been based mostly on lies from criminals who needed to punish his drug-combating efforts and to get sentencing breaks for themselves by helping prosecutors. He confirmed no obvious response on listening to the decision. The case had political ramifications on each side of the border. Testimony aired a secondhand declare that former Mexican President Felipe Calderón sought to protect infamous Sinaloa cocaine cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in opposition to a significant rival; Calderón referred to as the allegation “absurd” and “an absolute lie.”Jurors additionally realized that García Luna met with high-degree U.S. politicians and other officers, who thought of him a key cartel-combating associate as Washington launched into a $1.6 billion push to beef up Mexican legislation enforcement and stem the movement of medicine. The Individuals weren’t accused of wrongdoing, and though suspicions lengthy swirled round García Luna, the trial didn’t delve into the extent of U.S. officers’ information about them earlier than his 2019 arrest. Present Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has, nevertheless, pointedly recommended that Washington examine its personal legislation enforcement and intelligence officers who labored with García Luna throughout Calderón’s administration.A roster of ex-smugglers and former Mexican officers testified that García Luna took tens of millions of {dollars} in cartel cash, met with main traffickers and saved legislation enforcement at bay. He was “the most effective funding that they had,” stated Sergio “El Grande” Villarreal Barragan, a former federal police officer who labored for cartels on the facet and later as his essential job. “We had completely no issues with our actions.”He and other witnesses stated that on García Luna’s watch, police tipped traffickers about upcoming raids, ensured that cocaine might go freely by way of the nation, colluded with cartels to raid rivals, and did other favors. One ex-smuggler stated García Luna shared a doc that mirrored U.S. legislation enforcement’s information about an enormous cocaine cargo that was seized in Mexico round 2007. García Luna, 54, didn’t testify on the trial, although his spouse took the stand in an obvious effort to painting their property in Mexico as legitimately acquired and higher-center-class, however not lavish. The couple moved to Miami in 2012, when the Mexican administration modified and he turned a marketing consultant on security points.García Luna’s legal professionals emphasised that prosecutors’ case relied on testimony from admitted lawbreakers, with out recordings, messages or a documented money path to corroborate them. “Nothing backs up what these killers, torturers, fraudsters, and epic narcotics traffickers claimed about Genaro García Luna,” protection lawyer César de Castro stated in a closing argument.García Luna was convicted on costs that include participating in a seamless prison enterprise, which carries a possible sentencing vary of 20 years to life in jail; he additionally was convicted of other costs, together with cocaine distribution and cocaine conspiracy. His sentencing is set for June 27.The trial was peppered with glimpses of such narco-extravagances as a personal zoo with a lion, a hippo, white tigers and more. Jurors heard about tons of cocaine shifting by way of Latin America in delivery containers, go-quick boats, non-public jets, planes, trains and even submarines.And there have been horrific reminders of the extraordinary violence these medicine fueled.Witnesses described cartel killings and kidnappings, allegedly together with an abduction of García Luna himself. There was testimony about law enforcement officials being slaughtered and drug-world rivals being dismembered, skinned and dangled from bridges as cartel factions fought every other whereas shopping for police safety.Witnesses described delivering García Luna to conferences with cartel leaders in settings starting from a rustic house to a automobile wash and gathering packing containers and luggage filled with drug money at safe homes, a warehouse filled with cocaine and a elaborate Mexico Metropolis restaurant. One ex-smuggler, Óscar “El Lobo” Nava Valencia, stated he personally heard García Luna and a then-top police official say they’d “stand with us” throughout a gathering with Guzman’s associates amid a cartel civil warfare. That sit-down alone price the drug gang $3 million, Nava Valencia stated.García Luna was arrested after testimony about his alleged graft emerged at Guzman’s high-profile trial about 4 years in the past in the identical New York courtroom.The previous lawman additionally faces varied Mexican arrest warrants and costs referring to authorities know-how contracts, jail contracting and the bungled U.S. “Quick and Livid” investigation into suspicions that weapons have been illegally making their method from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels. The Mexican authorities has additionally filed a civil go well with in opposition to García Luna and his alleged associates and companies in Florida, looking for to get well $700 million that Mexico claims he garnered by way of corruption.López Obrador has given updates on the New York trial at his day by day press conferences, calling García Luna corrupt however noting that it was as much as the jury to determine whether or not he was responsible.___Associated Press author María Verza contributed from Mexico Metropolis.
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Dave Petchy
