Former cartel bosses, drug traffickers and law enforcement officials took the stand this week within the trial of Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former federal safety minister and architect of the nation’s struggle on medicine, which he carried out whereas publicly working with the DEA and secretly working with the world strongest drug cartel capo, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. 

No, this isn’t a script for the fourth season of Netflix’s ‘El Chapo’ sequence although it might make an intriguing Mexican telenovela because the most trusted ally of the U.S. for greater than a decade now stands trial within the identical Brooklyn courtroom the place El Chapo was tried and sentenced to life in jail 4 years in the past. In actual fact, the allegations in opposition to García Luna got here out throughout El Chapo’s trial.

García Luna, the highest-ranking Mexican official ever tried within the U.S. for drug corruption, is being accused of accepting multimillion-dollar bribes from El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel in alternate for serving to the cartel evade seize, amongst different crimes. He has pled not responsible to all costs.  

García Luna’s protection group, led by César de Castro says the federal government doesn’t have sufficient proof to convict his consumer, who was arrested in 2019. 

There may be “no cash, no images, no video, no texts, no emails, no recording, no paperwork — no credible, plausible proof that Genaro García Luna helped the cartel,” the protection stated throughout opening statements.

De Castro stated convicted cartel members on the prosecution’s record of witnesses are taking the stand as a result of they reduce offers to minimize their very own sentences and to get again at his consumer as a result of García Luna helped ship them to jail.

“Don’t let the cartels play you,” de Castro informed jurors.

The prosecution begs to vary. Led by Saritha Komatireddy of the US Legal professional’s Workplace, the prosecution says the safety García Luna offered to the Sinaloa Cartel enabled it to visitors large quantities of medicine into the U.S. On the time of El Chapo’s arrest in 2016, the cartel was supplying greater than half the cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana coming into the U.S. At this time, the Sinaloa Cartel is understood to be a significant producer and exporter of lethal fentanyl to the U.S.

“He [García Luna] is a person who betrayed his nation and ours,” stated authorities legal professional Philip Pilmar, per numerous information retailers. “The defendant took tens of millions of {dollars} of bribes once more, many times.” 

The prosecution has a listing of over 70 witnesses able to testify within the trial, which is anticipated to final greater than two months. 

Picture: Mexican authorities, Genaro García Luna’s time period as safety minister.