Although the defense of the former Mexican official had opened the possibility for his client to speak, today García Luna himself made it official that he will not testify.
-With information from Jesus Garcia
New York/Mexico City, February 13 (LaOpinión/SinEmbargo).- Genaro Garcia Lunawho was Federal Secretary of Public Safety in it six-year term of Felipe Calderón Hinojosaannounced this Monday morning to the Judge Brian Cogan that he will not testify during the judgment that he faces in the Eastern District Court of New York for their alleged links to drug trafficking.
“Genaro Garcia Luna denies testify in it judgment against him,” reported Jesús García, correspondent for the daily The opinion Los Angeles, through his Twitter account.
Although the defense of the former Mexican official had opened the possibility for his client to speak, today the same garcia moon made official that will not make statements.
During the restart of the hearings, the “super policeman” took the floor to speak in Spanish and said out loud that he would not testify. Despite the fact that this was what he expressed, the Judge asked him if he was aware of what he implied. The answer was a “yes”.
The former secretary’s decision comes after his legal team unsuccessfully sought to prevent US prosecutors from questioning him on certain issues if he wanted to provide his own version of events.
And as part of the latest effort by US authorities to forcefully close the case against García Luna, drug trafficker Jesús “El Rey” Zambada García has already taken the stand.
The identity of this last cooperator was kept secret until yesterday, since he was considered an “important witness” or “key” in the trial where corruption networks in Mexico have been exposed.
According to a document sent yesterday by the defense of the former Mexican Public Security Secretary to the Eastern District Court, “El Rey” Zambada would be the last cooperating witness of the United States Government.
Although the electronic document had covered (sealed) the name of Jesús “Rey” Zambada García, in a word search carried out by the journalist Jesús García and in a simple copy-and-paste of the text of the document, the name of the witness was revealed after weeks of speculation.
The name appeared in the text when De Castro mentioned that he did not receive the complete §3500 documentation (evidence) from the prosecutors, despite the multiple meetings that they held with one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
It was indicated that García Luna’s defense received documents related to the 69 Government proposals on the witness, before his sentence in March 2020.
Ready for the testimony of “El Rey” Zambada against #GenaroGarcíaLuna – Prosecutors announced last week that they close the presentation of witnesses and evidence. Busy day expected. pic.twitter.com/aVBl6b4fzg
— Jesus Garcia (@JesusGar) February 13, 2023
He added that in the 5K letter – a recommendation to the judge responsible for Zambada García’s sentence – it is revealed that the prosecutors had questioned him more than 100 times.
In the letter sent to Judge Brian Cogan to receive the complete documentation, De Castro pointed out that the prosecutors would have had 18 meetings with “El Rey”, but that only two information was delivered to García Luna’s defense.
“The Government says that it met with the witness 18 times in 2022 and 2023 and last night gave the defense two pages of §3500 [evidencia del testigo] related to two of those 18 meetings (one in November 2022 and the other on January 17, 2023),” De Castro complained. “Consequently, the Government has only produced notes of three meetings with the witness since the arrest of Mr. García Luna in 2019.”
During the trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, drug trafficker Zambada García was the first to claim that he had given García Luna at least five or six million dollars, but during the process of the latter, his name was mentioned several times. .
NOTE: The document sent by the defense seals the name, in the electronic search of the document his name: Jesus “Rey” Zambada Garcia appears. Also when copying the original text of the document.
This would confirm that “The King” is the “witness”. #juicioagarcialuna https://t.co/vcPmAOJbPK pic.twitter.com/Zon9JAHKkK— Jesus Garcia (@JesusGar) February 12, 2023
One of those times even when there was reference to his arrest, in the middle of the war between Mexican cartels. García Luna, who supported the Sinaloa Cartel, could not prevent the arrest of “El Rey”, orchestrated by members of the Beltrán Leyva Organization in collusion with corrupt police officers.