Harold Poveda Ortega, nicknamed
El Conejo and
considered one of the largest cocaine suppliers that the Sinaloa cartel had, recounted this Wednesday before a federal court in Brooklyn the ease with which drug traffickers moved through the corridors and terminals of the airport in Mexico City, which for years was one of the main drug transit ports, according to several witnesses from the Prosecutor's Office during the trial of the former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna.
El Conejo
, born in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, recounted how on one occasion when he traveled to that country, the boss Jesús
El Rey
Zambada took him to the airport and handed him over to federal police agents so that they could pass him through without doing any immigration paperwork. or customs.
"
The King
took me to the airport, he recommended me to some police officers", he assured, "they took a small suitcase that I was carrying and accompanied me to the door of the plane".
"No paperwork was done (…) she was a beauty," Poveda told the jury in court.
His story is known after other witnesses from the Prosecutor's Office reported that this airport was a key player in moving drug shipments in the 2000s, when García Luna held key positions in the fight against drug trafficking (from 2001 to 2005 he directed the Federal Investigation Agency; from 2006 to 2012 he was Secretary of Public Security).
García Luna's defense assures that the accusations against the former official are a "revenge" of the drug trafficker, who only has the statements of ex-criminals without concrete evidence such as photographs or recordings.
Genaro García Luna, in court. JANE ROSENBERG / REUTERS
Óscar
El Lobo
Nava Valencia, former leader of the Millennium Cartel, told the jury last Monday that the Beltrán Leiva Sinaloa Cartel paid millions to García Luna to have
free transit
, without interruptions from the airport police, and also help to
move
the drug
On several occasions, he assured, they arrived with drugs from Central American countries and some employees of the air terminal were in charge of moving the cargo.
Sergio
El Grande
Villarreal, another former drug lord, was the one who "managed the airport" for the cartel, he said.
The jury has also heard how these supposed operations in support of the drug trafficker were experienced from the airport security side.
Raúl Arellano Aguilera, a former agent of the Mexican Federal Police, recounted in his testimony that when he worked in 2007 as airport agents, he used to hear "a very strange order" that completely paralyzed the controls.
“
From now on, for 45 all 35
”, the police listened on the radio once or twice a week, and it coincided with the arrival of certain planes.
It meant not reviewing or controlling anyone: by superior orders (45), being attentive (35).
Arellano Aguilera assures that there was a "special group" (that seemed to have benefits) and that it did act during those orders.
Millions to move freely
Several ex-narcos have already been called by the Prosecutor's Office to describe the alleged agreement that the Beltrán Leiva criminal organization had with the former official: they gave him millions of dollars in cash, gathered in a collection between leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, to buy protection and attendance.
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"Arturo Beltrán said that we had better security at the airports and we had the opportunity to receive information to attack our rivals" thanks to an agreement with García Luna, Nava Valencia said.
He was questioned by the ex-official's defense, who pointed out that the ex-narco changed his testimony a month and a half before the trial.
It was out of fear, he replied.
Poveda Ortega also described this Wednesday in his testimony how the cartel grew in the 2000s, with the alleged support of García Luna to operate without controls, something that the former official denied.
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For several years,
El Conejo
was in charge of procuring cocaine for the Sinaloa Cartel, first in ships and speedboats with loads between two and nine tons, and then in containers and through Mexican airports.
"
We did not stop producing
," he said.
“My role was to link the big drug traffickers in Colombia with the big drug traffickers in Mexico.
I was the commission agent, ”said Poveda, who was arrested in Mexico in 2010 and extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to having imported more than one million kilos of cocaine.
Since then he has been cooperating with the government in legal cases against drug trafficking figures.
*Ronny Rojas reports from court in New York.