Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias 'El Grande', after being detained by the Navy in September 2010. Saúl López (Cuartoscuro)
Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias
El Grande
, is the first witness in the trial against Genaro García Luna.
The former collaborator of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juárez Cartel pointed out this Monday that the former official's links with organized crime go back more than 20 years, when García Luna was director of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), during the Government by Vicente Fox (2000-2006).
The first collaborator of the Prosecutor's Office directly accused him of being part of the group led by Joaquín
El Chapo
Guzmán.
“With the help of the Government, the cartel grew in terms of territory, in the amount of drugs that we moved, and it eliminated its enemies,” Villarreal Barragán said in the Brooklyn court.
"He had a very important participation," said El Grande about the role that García Luna played in the structure of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Villarreal Barragán, a former police officer who earned his nickname because he is over two meters tall, said that he had several meetings with García Luna when he was in charge of the AFI and that he was present on several occasions when they They gave him bribes.
The capo said that Arturo Beltrán, a former partner of the Sinaloa Cartel and later leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, was the one who gave the money to the former official.
“The payments grew as the cartel grew and without that support it would have been practically impossible,” he commented.
El Grande stood before the jury and explained in front of a blackboard the expansion of the cartel thanks to the supposed support of García Luna.
In 2001, according to his testimony, the criminal organization controlled only Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango and a part of the corridor between the cities of Torreón and Monterrey.
After a few years, it maintained its presence in those States and practically extended throughout the country from Baja California to the Yucatan peninsula.
"He gave us information on operations and investigations against the organization and helped us get rid of commanders and police chiefs in each square," he added.
After spending more than a decade in the security forces and colluding with the Juárez Cartel, El Grande joined the Sinaloa Cartel in 2001, a few months after García Luna was appointed director of the AFI, an agency created during the Fox government to investigate federal crimes.
At the time, the criminal organization was an amalgamation of alliances between various crime bosses.
At the beginning of his appearance, Villarreal Barragán identified several famous capos in front of the jury such as Ismael
El Mayo
Zambada, his brother Jesús
El Rey
Zambada, Ignacio Coronel and the Beltrán Leyva brothers.
“Arturo knew about my knowledge of the police and he asked me to design the operations to attack his enemies,” he commented.
El Grande said that the criminal group received protection from the Mexican government with police officers who worked as bodyguards and that several members of the cartel had credentials that identified them as AFI agents and that allowed them to carry weapons.
Villarreal Barragán had, for example, identification with the position of "second commander" under a false identity: Gerardo Máynez Real.
In addition, the Sinaloa Cartel had "cloned" patrol cars with the shield of the agency in charge of García Luna and false uniforms to camouflage themselves as police officers.
"García Luna was part of the Sinaloa Cartel, they put him on their payroll," said assistant prosecutor Philip Pilmar, in charge of giving the initial position of the Prosecutor's Office this Monday.
"Despite that, he presented himself as a hero," he said in his first opportunity to address the jurors.
César de Castro, García Luna's lawyer, assured that the US authorities had no evidence to prove the charges against his client.
"They will see how his government abandons one of his strategic partners and how the Prosecutor's case is based on the testimony of murderers, kidnappers and drug traffickers," said De Castro.
El Grande was arrested in Mexico in 2010 and extradited to the United States in May 2012, when García Luna was Secretary of Security in the Government of Felipe Calderón.
His testimony is the first of a list that includes dozens of people ready to testify against García Luna, including former associates, drug traffickers and corrupt politicians.
If found guilty, the highest-ranking former Mexican official to have stepped foot in a US court faces between 10 years and life in prison.
Information in development.
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