The immediate future of the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, Genaro García Luna, will be in the hands of more than 70 prosecution witnesses, most of them drug traffickers that even the defendant himself helped to capture, and of seven women and five men who make up the jury of the criminal trial for drug trafficking that is followed by the former official in a New York Court.
Most of the names of the drug lords summoned to testify are not public and remain “sealed” by order of the judge in the case, Brian M Cogan, although on Thursday night the togado revealed in a document the identity of six of these: They are Mexicans Jesus Reynaldo Zambada Garcia, alias the “King Zambada”; Sergio Villarreal Barragán, the “Great”; Miguel Arreola Marquez; Edgar Veytia; Francisco Cañedo Zavaleta, and the Colombian Alex Cifuentes.
Garcia Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, tried unsuccessfully to oppose the testimony of “King Zambada”, who also testified against drug trafficker Joaquín el “Chapo” Guzmán, during the trial in which he was sentenced -in 2019- to life imprisonment, plus 30 years in prison.
Brother of the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael Mario Zambada García, the “Mayo Zambada”, the “King Zambada” is a drug trafficker who was arrested in Mexico in 2008, and extradited to the United States in 2012, just when Genaro García Luna was incumbent of the Federal Public Security Secretariat, in the administration of President Felipe Calderon.
Star witness of the US Attorney’s Office against “Chapo” Guzmán, Zambada García assured in that trial that García Luna was bribed by the Sinaloa cartel with two payments of three and five million dollars.
According to the offender’s statements, the stuff that was allegedly delivered to the former Mexican official served to protect the “Mayo” in particular, and to allow the illegal activities of the cartel of which Guzmán Loera was also a part.
From this testimonyGenaro García Luna was arrested in December 2019 in the United Statescharged with international conspiracy to distribute cocaine, participate in a criminal enterprise, and make false statements.
Because the judge refused to invalidate this accusation, as the criminal lawyer Cesar de Castro wanted, “King Zambada” will once again take the stand in the Eastern District Court of New York, although this time he will not point to “Chapo” Guzmán, but will have to reiterate the alleged delivery of money to Genaro García Luna.
Having become a collaborator of the United States Prosecutor’s Office and the Department of Justice, “King Zambada” would have negotiated important benefits with these authorities in exchange for his accusing testimonies. In fact, the whereabouts of this offender is unknown.
Since testifying against “El Chapo” Guzmán has ceased to appear in the records of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and has also been removed from the lists of the US Treasury Department, which, since 2012, has they pointed out as a drug trafficking operator.
The “Great” and the former prosecutor of Nayarit
Other underworld characters that the US Prosecutor’s Office will use against García Luna are Sergio Villarreal Barragán, the “Great”, and Edgar Veytia, former prosecutor of the state of Nayarit, the latter sentenced to 20 years in prison in the neighboring country.
The first, formerly a member of the Beltrán Leyva brothers’ gang, has also disappeared from the negative records prepared by the United States Department of the Treasury.
Sergio Villarreal Barragán was extradited to that nation in 2012, after remaining imprisoned in Mexico for only two years, after being arrested -in September 2010- by elements of the Navy in the state of Puebla.
The “Big One” accused Genaro García in a court in Chicago, Illinois, of having collaborated with the Beltrán Leyva cartel, along with Luis Cardenas Palomino, former head of the Regional Security Division of the now extinct Federal Police of Mexico. While in office, both Cárdenas and García Luna allegedly received large sums of money from drug trafficking, according to the capo’s testimony.
Cárdenas Palomino, who has been imprisoned since 2021 in the Altiplano prison in the State of Mexico, is accused of the crime of torture that he would have committed against two brothers of Israel Vallarta, the latter alleged leader of the gang of kidnappers Los Zodiaco, who was apprehended in 2005 together with the French Florence Cassez.
The former head of Regional Security of the former Federal Police is also being persecuted in the United States for drug trafficking, although up to now his extradition has not been requested.
In turn, Judge Brian M. Cogan authorized the Prosecutor’s Office to summon the former Nayarit prosecutor, Edgar Veytia, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the American Union, after being arrested in that country in 2017.
Convicted of trafficking heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, Veytia was a civil servant in the same years that García Luna was, And coincidentally, his defense in the US courts was led by the same lawyer for “Chapo” Guzmán, the New York criminal lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman.
The former prosecutor from Nayarit has dual nationality, Mexican and American, so his testimony against Genaro García Luna could get him a reduction in his sentence or his eventual release.
As for the other witnesses that Judge Brian M. Cogan revealed, the Colombian Alex Cifuentes stands out, whose real name is Hildebrando Alexander Cifuentes Villa, a man who worked for “El Chapo” Guzmán in Sinaloa, and who later participated as prosecution witness in his trial.
Cifuentes starred in 2019 in one of the most scandalous revelations that were aired in the criminal process of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, stating that the former president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, would have received a bribe of 100 million dollars.
FIND OUT: Genaro García Luna asks to exclude evidence of his wealth in court
The Barbie in the reserve
Although the name of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, the Barbie, was not mentioned in the document by Judge Brian M. Cogan, it is not ruled out that this drug trafficker also appears as a prosecution witness in the García Luna trial, because he was a member of the Sinaloa cartels and the Beltrán Leyva criminal clan .
Since November 2022, Valdez was no longer in the custody of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, which generated multiple speculations about his possible release. In fact, the offender is still in prison and his sentence is maintained until July 27, 2056although it is unknown in which North American prison he is staying.
Valdez Villarreal was also arrested in the government of Felipe Calderón, specifically in 2010, and sent to the United States in 2015. Three years later, he pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine to that country, and carrying out operations with resources of illicit origin.
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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.