The verdict was unambiguous and Genaro Garcia Luna, the former head of public security (2006-2012) of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, now risks staying behind bars for a long time. Tuesday, February 21, the man who was the architect of the “war on drugs” for more than a decade in Mexico was found guilty, by the federal court of Brooklyn, in New York, of the charges which weighed against him for “drug trafficking, organized delinquency and false declarations to the American immigration authorities”.
Since January 17, the twelve jurors have seen the “gotha” of Mexican drug trafficking of the 2000s among the twenty-six prosecution witnesses. They got to know the nicknames of former Sinaloa Cartel leaders Beltran Leyva and Milenio, who became collaborators with US justice in exchange for reduced sentences. “The King”, “the Great”, “the Rabbit”, “the Wolf”, “the Footballer” have all admitted having paid millions of dollars to the former minister in exchange for his protection. According to their testimonies, Garcia Luna sometimes complied, sometimes betrayed. He finally sided with the Sinaloa Cartel, giving it unprecedented strike power and provoking a bloody war.
Saritha Komatireddy, Assistant New York District Attorney, called this cartel a “Cocaine Fedex”, with reference to the American freight company. Traffic by plane, train, bus and even submarine could not be so effective, according to her, “only with the collaboration of the former minister”. She explained that it took ten years for American justice to build its accusation thanks to the testimony of criminals. Elias Camhaji, who followed the trial for the newspaper El País, particularly retained the testimony of Sergio Villarreal, alias El Grande: “He was most specific about the collaboration between his cartel and the henchmen of Garcia Luna, describing how he had the police uniforms, their cars, their information and their concrete help to attack their enemies”. For these services, the one that the “narcos” had nicknamed “El Compa” (“the Companion”) or “El Tartamudo” (“the Stutterer”) for his notorious stuttering, allegedly received money in lawyer’s briefcases or gym bags, including at a restaurant located just across from the US Embassy in Mexico City.
Police involved
Mexican investigative journalist Anabel Hernandez was also in court to see in the dock the one who would have tried several times to assassinate him because of his investigations into the links which united him to the Sinaloa cartel. She was delighted to see at the bar Mexican police officers telling how their colleagues, under the orders of Garcia Luna, helped the “narcos” transport drugs through the Mexico City airport: ” VShe police are very brave, they had nothing to gain by coming to testify here, on the contrary. Those who had so far denounced the crimes of Garcia Luna are dead or in prison. »
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