King Zambada, from the internal war between cartels to being the star witness against García Luna

The testimony of Jesús Reynaldo

Zambada had already been explosive in 2019, when he participated as a witness in the case of Joaquín

Guzmán.

But the younger brother of Ismael

Zambada, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, has stood by his words before a new court in New York, this time in the trial against Genaro García Luna.

Former manager of that organization's plaza in the Mexican capital, El Rey was arrested in Mexico City in October 2008 and extradited to the United States in 2012. Since then he has crowned his move from internecine warfare between drug cartels to courts, where he has become the star witness for the US Attorney's Office in several cases, including the trial against the former Mexican drug czar.

The arrest of King Zambada, born in Culiacán (Sinaloa) 61 years ago, was one more consequence of the fight between a group of organized crime organizations.

The details of the arrest came to light during the first hearings of the trial against the former Mexican Secretary of Security.

Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias El Grande, commented in court that it was the Beltrán Leyva brothers who handed over El Mayo's brother.

They were angry with the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel for the arrest of one of Beltrán Leyva's, Alfredo, in January 2008, and they opted for the “one brother for another” strategy.

According to the drug trafficker, it was the same cartel hitmen, disguised as police officers, who carried out the arrest and handed him over to the authorities.

However,

When the arrest took place, the Government of Mexico, then headed by Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), pointed to El Rey as the one who controlled the operations of the Sinaloa Cartel in Oaxaca, Guerrero and Mexico City.

The then attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, who later became a minister of the Supreme Court of Justice, accused him of coordinating operations in the Valley of Mexico, managing the import of cocaine from South America and the movement of drugs in the airport of the Mexican capital.

In addition, he was pointed out for being linked to the bomb attack against a police chief in 2008 and the murder of police chief Édgar Millán.

El Rey, who was 47 when he was arrested, was detained in a confrontation with police along with his son, Jesús Zambada Reyes, 21.

A little over a year later, when Zambada Reyes had already become a collaborating witness for the then PGR, he was found dead in a house where he lived under police custody.

Authorities claimed it was a suicide.

Another of the detainees in the operation in which El Rey fell was the son of the couple he had at that time, about whom they assured that he worked as the kingpin's right hand.

El Mayo's younger brother pleaded guilty during his trial in the United States and was sentenced in March 2020 to 12 years in prison for organized crime and drug trafficking.

In exchange for reducing the sentence and obtaining protection for his family, the drug trafficker became a collaborator with the authorities and his first major participation was as a star witness in the trial against El Chapo Guzmán.

At that time, he said that he had made million-dollar payments to García Luna in the form of bribes in a restaurant in the capital, because part of his role within the criminal organization was to keep accounts and manage payroll.

The first delivery of money made to García Luna was in 2005, when the former official was in charge of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), but his name was already on the horizon to head the Security Secretariat in the Administration of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). ).

The second installment was in 2007, when the now defendant had already been appointed in charge of that unit.

This Monday, being the star witness of the Prosecutor's Office in the case against García Luna, El Rey confirmed what he had said in November 2018 and elaborated on the details of the meetings with the former Secretary of Security.

"I saw him once in my life," he said before the judge, "on one occasion when I saw him to give him some money."

The capo also declared that on the first occasion he gave him, through the lawyer Óscar Paredes, who worked for the cartel, three million dollars, and on the second, two million more.

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