García Luna, in the hands of the jury after the end of the trial in New York

“Criminal partner” of the Sinaloa cartel, as the prosecution alleged on Wednesday, or head of the war against drug trafficking that Mexico waged between 2006 and 2012, when he was Secretary of Public Security, as his defense argues? The fate of Genaro García Luna was left in the hands of a New York jury.

After the end of a four-week process -half the time initially scheduled-, the deliberations to decide whether or not the defendant helped the Sinaloa cartel to traffic tons of drugs to the United States They will begin this Thursday in the Brooklyn court.

In the closing arguments, the prosecution and the defense have presented two opposite sides of the highest-ranking Mexican official who sits on the bench of justice in the United States.

“It is shocking that while he was meeting with (former US President) Barack Obama he was working with the Poster of Sinaloa“one of the prosecutors, Erin Reid, said Wednesday.

For the Public Ministry it was clear that, after the parade of 26 witnesses for the courtthe defendant engaged in corruption “at the highest level” beyond a “reasonable doubt”.

Nine of the witnesses who paraded through the trial for four weeks – half the time initially scheduled – are prominent Mexican drug traffickers extradited to the United States who collaborate with US justice, in exchange for reduced sentences.

“I am not asking them to like them, they have done horrible things, they are criminals but you have to get to know them,” said prosecutor Sarith Komatireddy during four hours of arguments.

Without the collaboration of the “highest level of the Mexican government,” the “multi-million dollar operation” of the cartel, which used trains, planes, ships, containers, or submarines to import tons of drugs from South America through airports, ports, or highways with final destination to the United States, “would have been impossible to carry out,” estimated the prosecutor.

García Luna “was his criminal partner” and for this “he received millions of dollars,” he concluded before asking the jury to “use their common sense” and “convict him.”

$270 million in bribes

Several of the witnesses, former prominent members of the Sinaloa cartel, such as Jesús “Rey” Zambada, Sergio Villarreal “El Grande” or Óscar “Lobo” Valencia, assured during the trial that they had paid millions of dollars to the defendant, as would also have been the case. made by Arturo Beltrán Leyva, who made a collection to collect money from the different factions to pay the powerful “super policeman” monthly in exchange for protection.

Added together the figures that were mentioned in the trial, they are “270 million dollars” that García Luna would have received in bribes, said the defense lawyer, César de Castro, who asked where that money is.

“There is no proof that he received money and there is no proof that if he did receive it, he would share it” with the subordinates who participated in the corrupt scheme, he said. And he questioned the credibility of the witnesses, who often fell into contradictions, and whom he considers the victims of the war against drug trafficking waged by the Calderón government.

“Lack of evidence is not evidence: they have to prove it, we do not have to prove it,” he told the jury, after reminding them that “they have not found a single document, recording or photo that can corroborate it.”

García Luna, a 54-year-old mechanical engineer, refused to testify at trial. His wife did it in his place Cristina Pereyra to explain her heritagewhich has two houses, two restaurants, two motorcycles, two cars and “a beautiful aquarium”, as defined by the defense, in his house in the Mexican capital, far from the extravagances of other drug traffickers.

The defense tries to withdraw one of the five charges of which he is accused: participating in an ongoing criminal enterprise, since they allege that he finished his duties as Secretary of Public Safety in 2012 and settled in Florida with his family, where he has lived until his arrest. in December 2019 in Dallas (Texas). The prosecution is opposed.

If found guilty, García Luna faces between 10 years and life in prison.

The Mexican government, which has asked the United States for his extradition, also claims 700 million dollars allegedly embezzled by the former secretary.