They made a collection: this is how the Sinaloa cartel bribed García Luna according to the court story of drug trafficker Óscar 'El Lobo' Valencia

New York

– The federal court in Brooklyn resumed this Monday the trial against Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico accused of aiding drug trafficking, with the testimony of Óscar

Nava Valencia, former leader of the Milenio cartel in the Mexican state of Michoacán, who affirmed that he paid more than 10 million dollars to the former official, who has denied being guilty of all the accusations against him.

El Lobo

, a witness for the Prosecutor's Office, assured that he gave money to a fund or "cock" to which other leaders of the Sinaloa cartel contributed to pay García Luna in exchange for "more control and security" and to receive information to attack their rivals the Gulf and Zetas cartels.

He also stated that he saw García Luna twice in person, and that

.

The first encounter, he said, was in 2007 in Cuernavaca, after the Navy seized more than 20 tons of cocaine from Colombia from the Sinaloa cartel at the port of Manzanillo, in the state of Colima, one of the largest seizures of drugs in the history of Mexico.

The former secretary, he says, helped him save 50 million dollars that the Colombians were demanding for the lost cargo.

A year later, he recounted, he met García Luna at a car wash in Guadalajara.

to “make a deal”: I needed to buy their protection in the inter-cartel war.

To secure the meeting, he said, he handed over $500,000.

And then another 2.5 million.

They reveal that García Luna was kidnapped by Beltrán Leyva in Cuernavaca

Jan 25, 202302:16

Nava Valencia is not the first ex-narco to testify on the stand in the trial against García Luna, the highest-ranking former official to be brought before a US federal court.

Before that, former drug traffickers Sergio 

Villarreal Barragán and Tirso

Martínez Sánchez spoke.

They also mentioned in their testimonies the existence of a common purse to which the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel contributed to allegedly pay García Luna and his right-hand man, Luis Cárdenas Palomino.

García Luna's defense has attacked the veracity of these statements, indicating that there is no evidence, such as recordings or photographs, and stressing that they are ex-narcos.

He assures, in this sense, that they are leading a "revenge" against whoever had the role of fighting them in Mexico at the time.

Last Monday, Villarreal Barragán said that he witnessed the payment of a monthly collection from drug traffickers to García Luna in exchange for protection and help for almost a decade: "It was the best investment of the Sinaloa Cartel," he assured.

García Luna is accused precisely of collecting millionaire bribes from the criminal organization, an exchange of favors that would range from providing protection and logistical support to key information to eliminate his enemies and avoid being arrested, between 2001 and 2012, when he was first in the Federal Police and then leading the war against drug trafficking for the Government of Felipe Calderón.

Oscar Nava Valencia (left) and other alleged members of the Los Valencia Cartel after being arrested in Mexico in 2019. ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP via Getty Images

El Lobo

said that he began trafficking drugs when he was 16 years old and joined the Milenio cartel in 1996, of which he became the leader after the arrest of Armando

Valencia Cornelio in 2004. When questioned, he said that during his stay by the cartel he ordered "to commit acts of violence" that cost the lives of more than 100 people. 

Nava Valencia was arrested in 2009 and extradited to the US in 2011. In 2014 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drug trafficking.

He has been in prison for more than 13 years and, according to what he said on the stand, he hopes to be released in 2025.

A saving of 50 million dollars

Nava Valencia recounted when questioned that when the Navy seized the cocaine shipment in 2007, the "Colombian" suppliers wanted to charge the Sinaloa cartel for the value of the cargo, which would reach about 50 million dollars.

"The Colombians thought we didn't have good arrangements there and that's why we lost the shipment," he said.

['El Grande' and 'El Futbolista' were drug traffickers and now act as key witnesses against García Luna in exchange for benefits]

Two months after the seizure, he said, he was present at a meeting between Arturo Beltrán Leiva and García Luna in Cuernavaca, in which the official handed them a court document proving that the seized shipment had been detected by the United States anti-drug agency. (DEA) since he left Colombia.

With this document, the Sinaloa cartel demonstrated that "it was not our responsibility, but theirs. We took responsibility away from ourselves,"

declared .

When asked by prosecutor Marietou Diouf, Nava Valencia assured that thanks to García Luna, the cartel saved 50 million dollars.

For this, the drug lord allegedly paid the then official five million dollars, according to what he said.

A meeting in a laundry room for a favor

He assured that he also met García Luna in mid-2008, in a car wash in Guadalajara.

to "make an agreement with him."

The meeting took place after the truce between the cartels that had faced Joaquín

Guzmán and the Beltrán Leyva brothers was broken.

said that after Arturo Beltrán kidnapped him to force him to fight on his side, he decided to join the

group and the Gulf cartel.

However, he said,

view of "the situation that was coming" and to stop any investigation against his group that originated from information provided by his rivals.

Just to secure the meeting,

said he paid $500,000 and then handed over another $2.5 million.

"There we completed more money. We had to give [García Luna] three million dollars," he said.

During the testimony, the Prosecutor's Office showed photographs of the car wash, Estetic Car Wash, where

assures that the meeting took place and in which García Luna would have been accompanied by Luis Cárdenas Palomino, former director of Federal Security of the Federal Police and currently in prison in Mexico (accused of torture).

A "cash" collection for García Luna

When questioned by the Prosecutor's Office, the ex-narco said that the first time he put money to pay García Luna was in 2006 "when they told us that we had to make a cock."

According to his version, Arturo Beltrán, the former leader of the Beltrán Leyva criminal organization, told him that "we were going to have a larger agreement to have more control and security."

"It was what Arturo and

said (...) that this could assure Genaro García Luna and other senior officials," said

.

On that occasion, the capo gave 2.5 million dollars to be paid to the high official.

["Black suitcases full of money" belonging to the drug trafficker arrived at García Luna when he was secretary, a witness from the Prosecutor's Office assures]

García Luna put his hand to his heart on the first day of the trial when he saw his family present.

JANE ROSENBERG / REUTERS

In total, the ex-capo indicated, he would have paid "

" for the collection, which was allegedly directed by García Luna.

He said the former official was given "cash money."

El Lobo

recounted in the courtroom that he heard from Arturo Beltrán, former leader of the Beltrán Leyva organization, about the politician's collaboration with the Sinaloa cartel.

“Arturo Beltrán specifically mentioned his relationship with García Luna,” he said.

He also said that he heard

Guzmán and Mayo Zambada mention the agreement with García Luna: "Arturo Beltrán said that we had better security at the airports and we had the opportunity to receive information to attack our rivals."