A man who committed acts of cannibalism, whose identity has not been revealed, and who claims to have information on the alleged criminal activities of the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, Genaro Garcia Luna He is among the witnesses who will testify against the former official in the drug trafficking trial that is being followed in a New York court.
In addition to this subject whose background includes having eaten human flesh, this week began the parade of criminal collaborators of the US Attorney’s Office, who claim to have delivered large sums of money to García Luna, from the drug cartels.
In contrast, in their opening arguments, the former public servant’s defense emphasized that prosecutors do not have any type of physical evidence with which they can prove the charges of international conspiracy to distribute cocaine, participate in a criminal enterprise, and make false statements.
“There is no money, there are no photos, there are no videos, no texts, no emails, (…) there is no plausible and credible evidence that Mr. García Luna helped the cartels” of drug trafficking in Mexico, he said Cesar de Castro, the litigant who leads the defense of the Mexican.
According to the lawyer, the United States Attorney’s Office has based its accusation on rumors, speculation, and on “the words of the greatest criminals in the world, many of whom were arrested and extradited” by Genaro García, when he was an official.
The latter, added the lawyer, proves that in reality the Mexican ex-policeman would not have accepted any bribe, since both the sinaloa Cartel, as the criminal organization of the brothers Beltran Leyva, They were persecuted by the defendant today, ergo, “the cartel did not get what it supposedly paid for” with the lies alleged by the Prosecutor’s Office, the defender emphasized.
De Castro added that the prosecution witnesses who will testify against the also former head of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), would actually be cooperating with the US authorities to take revenge on García Luna, having been persecuted and prosecuted by him, since these are convicted felons who get benefits for their cooperation in this trial.
To reinforce his defense and try to show that Genaro García Luna was a good official who fought drug traffickers, César de Castro showed the jurors various photographs in which the defendant today meets the former president. Barack Obama; the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; and former US prosecutor Eric Holder.
the accusing cannibal
Among the list of prosecution witnesses already authorized by the judge Brian M Cogan, there is a man whom García Luna’s defense tried to disqualify because he committed acts of cannibalism, which would make -according to Cesar de Castro- his testimony unreliable.
However, the judge did not agree to the lawyer’s request, and gave his consent for this subject to testify against García Luna, although no one in the Court, not even the defender himself, will be able to make any reference to the acts of cannibalism that were committed. attributed to the witness.
“Consequently, the defense cannot ask about previous acts of cannibalism by Government witnesses or their denial thereof”, Judge Cogan established in a response document to one of the defense motions, a copy of which he possesses. HIGH LEVEL.
According to the judge, even though the cooperating witness for the Prosecutor’s Office has lied “about previous acts of cannibalism, the marginal probative value of that fact is substantially outweighed by the highly incendiary and distracting nature of the underlying conduct,” that is, in court it should not be mentioned that the accuser ate human flesh, because that topic can distract the jurors.
Thus, this witness can only be questioned by Cesar de Castro in relation to the crimes that García Luna would have committed, of which the cannibal would be aware, and for which he appears on the list of accusers presented by the prosecutors.
Millions of dollars delivered
The first witness questioned on Monday by the prosecutor Philip Pilmar was the drug dealer Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias the “Great”, who was part of the Sinaloa and Beltrán Leyva cartels.
The “Big One”, who had already said in a court in Chicago, Illinois, that Genaro García received various bribes from drug trafficking, reiterated before Judge Brian M. Cogan that he himself witnessed the delivery of millions of dollars to the former Secretary of Public Safety.
Villarreal Barragán, arrested in Mexico in 2010 and extradited to the American Union in 2012, explained that there are two ways to bribe officials in Mexico: “One is when you pay an officer to look the other way to let something pass. The other type is when (the public servant) participates in the activities of the criminal organization. In this case, according to the criminal, Genaro García operated in the second way.
In exchange for the million-dollar bribes, the defendant “gave us information about operations against the cartel,” said the “Grande”, who assured that García Luna also helped them by sharing information so that the Sinaloa cartel could attack its rivals.
“With the help of the government, the cartel grew in territory, (and) in the amount of drugs that we moved,” said the drug trafficker, now a collaborating witness for the Prosecutor’s Office against Genaro García.
Specifically, Sergio Villarreal Barragán detailed having been present at a meeting held between Arturo Beltrán Leyva and García Luna. In that meeting, which would have been held in a house in Mexico City, the former head of the AFI would have received a bribe of 1.5 million dollars, a figure that would only be added to other illegal payments that the former official would have received between 2001 and 2012.
The defendant will not testify
The trial against the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, which is expected to last about two months, for the moment does not include the fact that he declares or responds to any interrogation by the Prosecutor’s Office, since -in the neighboring country- no defense lawyer risks taking his client to the stand. Doing so opens the door for prosecutors to harshly confront him, which in no way benefits the defendant.
For now, César de Castro has told the press that García Luna’s declaration of innocence is maintained, so his defense will focus on proving that the testimonies against the former official are false, as a result of the benefits obtained by criminals. by collaborating with the Prosecutor’s Office.
However, the problem for the Mexican is not only the more than 70 prosecution witnesses that the US government will cite, but the nearly 10,000 documents that the prosecutors They claim to have evidence of the collusion between García Luna and drug trafficking. If the former official is found guilty, his sentence can be between 20 years in prison and life imprisonment.
It should be clarified that juries in the United States are not the ones who impose the sentence, Well, this is up to the judge. The seven women and five men who make up the jury in the criminal trial against Genaro García Luna will only have to decide if the defendant is guilty or innocent in each of the five charges against him.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.