King Zambada testifies against Genaro García Luna in the US 4:55
(CNN Spanish) --
César de Castro, lawyer for the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico Genaro García Luna, focused this Monday on the criminal history of Jesús "El Rey" Zambada during his cross-examination, as he has done with other witnesses during the trial in which the former official faces drug charges in New York.
Zambada acknowledged that part of his role within the Sinaloa Cartel was to gather information on members of rival organizations and then coordinate with hitmen to assassinate them.
He also admitted that he conspired to assassinate various commanders of the now defunct Deputy Attorney General's Office for Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (Seido) and of the Judicial Police.
Jesús "El Rey" Zambada says he paid García Luna US$ 5 million in exchange for protection for his brother El Mayo
This Monday, Zambada testified, among other things, that he paid García Luna at least US$5 million in exchange for protection for his brother Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In his cross-examination, De Castro did not specifically address on Monday the issue of the alleged payments to García Luna that Zambada spoke of, but he said that he would arrive there, perhaps in the continuation of those questions, scheduled for this Tuesday.
In 2012, Zambada was extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to various drug charges.
He was sentenced on March 13, 2020, and two weeks later he was released on probation.
As part of it, he has to continue collaborating with the prosecution in all the cases they need.
De Castro asked Zambada about his meetings with the prosecution since he was extradited.
He highlighted that, although in those first meetings in 2012 Zambada spoke of other allegedly corrupt senior officials, he did not mention García Luna until 2013, a year after he began collaborating with the prosecution.
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Zambada also indicated that he was arrested in Mexico in 2008 and that he spent almost four years in a Mexican prison before being extradited to the United States during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, when García Luna was part of his cabinet.
In 2020, Zambada was sentenced to 12 years in jail but, due to the time served, he was released on supervised release several weeks later.
De Castro said that during his sentence Zambada's lawyer had said that he had been forced to enter drug trafficking because he could not continue his job as an accountant because he was the brother of Mayo Zambada.
The lawyer asked the witness if it was true that he entered drug trafficking voluntarily and that he came to earn massive amounts of money, which Zambada admitted.
Who is Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, whose name came up in the trial of "El Chapo" Guzmán?
"At the end of the day, yes, I went that route because I wanted to," he replied.
“And you enjoyed the wealth you gained, right?” de Castro asked.
“I enjoy it more now here,” Zambada replied.
Zambada said that in the United States he has begun to compose songs and that he plans to release a music CD in the future.
García Luna faces in this trial several counts of participation in an ongoing criminal enterprise and other charges of conspiracy to obtain, import and distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine in the United States, in addition to allegedly making false statements to US immigration officials.
The former official has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Genaro Garcia Luna