Witness declares that Genaro García Luna would have been kidnapped by Arturo Beltrán Leyva: this was the second day of the trial in the United States.

The revelations of the first day of the trial against Genaro García Luna 4:56

(CNN Spanish) ––

This Tuesday continued the statement of a witness in the trial that Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, faces in New York for drug trafficking.

This is Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias "El Grande", who was arrested in 2010 and pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to traffic five kilos of cocaine and money laundering.

• The trial against Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, in the US: who is he, what are they accusing him of and who are the witnesses

García Luna faces several counts of participation in an ongoing criminal enterprise and conspiracy to obtain, import and distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine in the US, in addition to allegedly making false statements to US immigration officials.

The former official pleads not guilty to all charges.

This Tuesday, Villarreal declared that, after the capture of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva in 2008, a violent war broke out between the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Ismael “Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the Beltrán Leyva.

In this context, he says that his brother, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, had García Luna kidnapped because "he no longer wanted to answer his calls" and that the operations against them "were constant", while they were "minimum" against Chapo. and the "May".

According to Villarreal, the alleged kidnapping occurred after Arturo Beltrán Leyva ordered the killing of Edgar Millán, commissioner of the Federal Police at the time.

He added that Beltrán Leyva also ordered the killing of Mario Pineda Villa, leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, because according to the witness "he had sided" with Chapo and "Mayo."

Soon after, García Luna was released and after the kidnapping, Beltrán Leyva continued to pay "the monthly payment" to the former secretary.

• Trial against Genaro García Luna: Prosecutor and defense present their initial arguments, and the first witness declares

Villarreal affirmed that after being appointed as Secretary of Public Security in 2006, García Luna continued to receive bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, although he stopped attending the meetings and sent his collaborator Luis Cárdenas Palomino, who at that time was acting as coordinator of Police intelligence and who was arrested in Mexico on July 4, 2021 for the alleged commission of the crime of torture against alleged kidnappers in 2012.

advertising

Cárdenas, according to Villarreal, received suitcases “full of money” and the amount of payments increased as the organization grew and expanded throughout the country.

According to Villarreal, the benefits for that cartel increased after García Luna became Secretary of Public Security.

In the same case in which García Luna is accused, the US Department of Justice accused Cárdenas in 2020 of three counts of conspiracy to traffic cocaine.

Cárdenas has been detained in Mexico since July 2021, accused of the crime of torture against alleged kidnappers.

CNN is trying to determine if Cardenas has lawyers and his reaction to Villarreal's comments.

García Luna's trial, more important than El Chapo's?

1:55

In his cross-examination, García Luna's lawyer, César de Castro, aimed to demonstrate how violent and ruthless Villarreal and the people he worked for were.

He acknowledged that he witnessed many acts of violence when he worked, as he admitted to de Castro, for "the most powerful and violent drug traffickers on the planet" who tortured, killed and even buried people alive.

Villarreal said he also had a reputation for being violent and could not answer how many people he had killed.

He pointed out that in the shootings everyone "shot and he doesn't know how many died from their bullets."

De Castro asked him about an alleged incident in which Villarreal was in one of Arturo Beltrán Leyva's houses in the company of two women who made a comment about the wife of the owner of the residence.

Beltrán Leyva disliked what they said and took out an AK-47 rifle and "blew off the heads" of the women.

Beltrán Leyva ordered his hit men to burn the bodies of the women in a vehicle and make them disappear.

Genaro García LunaDrug trafficking