The prosecution wrapped up its case on Wednesday towards Mexico’s former safety chief by telling jurors to “use your frequent sense” and consider the testimony of quite a few accused drug traffickers who say he was “their companion in crime.”
Genaro Garcia Luna, who held high-ranking safety positions in Mexico from 2001 till 2012, is accused of taking hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel to permit secure passage of narcotics shipments. 9 of the 26 witnesses, who testified towards Garcia Luna, are accused drug traffickers extradited from Mexico and collaborating with US prosecutors in change for doable leniency in their very own trials. A few of the witnesses are clearly unsavory, prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy acknowledged to jurors throughout 4 hours of closing arguments.
“I’m not asking you to love them. They’re criminals. They’ve performed horrible issues. However it takes one to know one,” she stated. The month-long trial has introduced a highlight on the alleged corruption of the very best rating Mexican authorities determine ever to face US trial. It additionally has opened a window on the huge assets of the Sinaloa Cartel beneath Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who’s now serving a life sentence in a US penitentiary. The cartel ran a “multibillion greenback operation” that used money bribes to realize favor in politics, public safety, customs, ports and airports, she stated. Garcia Luna was important to cartel smuggling as a result of it was “not possible to run an operation… with out the cooperation of the Mexican authorities,” she stated.
The prosecutor urged the jurors to not low cost the self-interested testimony of the accused drug traffickers, as protection attorneys have urged. “Use your frequent sense and discover him responsible,” Komatireddy stated. “They advised you that the defendant took hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.” They advised the jurors “he was their companion in crime,” she stated. The world’s largest narcotics group at one time, the Sinaloa Cartel moved multi-ton a great deal of cocaine every month from producing nations within the Andean area up via Mexico and on to streets in Europe and North America.
Garcia Luna served as chief of the Mexican equal of the FBI from 2001 till 2006, when he was elevated to grow to be secretary of public safety, primarily operating the federal police pressure and most counterdrug operations. If convicted on 5 prices, which vary from cocaine trafficking conspiracy to creating false statements, Garcia Luna faces between 10 years and a life time period in US jail. The witnesses towards Garcia Luna included former a number of high-level cartel bosses, together with Jesus “Rey” Zambada, Sergio Villarreal and Oscar “Lobo” Valencia. They claimed to have paid hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to Garcia Luna collectively, and thru Arturo Beltran Leyva, who ran his personal drug cartel and served as a go-between with Garcia Luna, referred to as a “supercop,” in change for cover. Garcia Luna, a 54-year-old mechanical engineer, declined to testify on his personal behalf.