The "evidence" against García Luna "proves that he used his position to make millions," says the Prosecutor's Office in final argument

New York—

"The evidence proves that Genaro García Luna was an intelligent, ambitious, powerful and selfish official who

," prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy shot in the federal court of the Eastern District of New York, when giving This Wednesday the final arguments in the trial against the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, accused of having received bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.

Komatireddy, who presented the conclusions on behalf of the US authorities, went through the testimony of the nine cooperating witnesses, especially former drug traffickers who assured the jury that they had paid millions of dollars to Genaro García Luna, or had heard that he was he paid, in exchange for protecting and helping the Sinaloa Cartel, when his job was to fight it.

One of them, Sergio

Villarreal Barragán, the first witness, told García Luna that he was considered "the best investment of the cartel" and that he received "black suitcases full of cash."

García Luna, said

allegedly

He helped them on three fronts: he provided information on operations and investigations against the organization, he facilitated the appointment of commanders who worked with them in "any plaza in Mexico" and he gave them information on their rivals, in order to eliminate them.

After almost three weeks of hearing, the main evidence of the Prosecutor's Office to prove his accusation are the statements of

and other former drug traffickers who ended up in prison in the United States.

And it was precisely the lack of documentary evidence that was used by defense attorney César de Castro when he asked the jury not to believe the words of drug lords "who have committed horrible crimes."

Former Mexico Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna listens as Saritha Komatireddy presents closing arguments before the jury. JANE ROSENBERG / REUTERS

In his conclusions, the lawyer bet on destroying the credibility of the testimony of the cooperating witnesses, whom he called "murderers, torturers, fraudsters, traffickers and liars."

“Everything I told you has happened (…) the lack of evidence from the Government is shocking.

They are asking you to convict this man based solely on the words of murderers," de Castro told the jury.

In the morning, prosecutor Komatireddy insisted to the jurors that the account of these witnesses is considered evidence and should be sufficient to "prove beyond any reasonable doubt" that García Luna was a "corrupt" official.

“

, some of these people have done terrible things,” said the prosecutor, “but we ask you to listen to them and

,” said Komatireddy, whose presentation lasted three hours, from a podium. in front of the jury and surrounded by a screen and a blackboard with the photos of the witnesses who testified in the trial.

García Luna's defense attorney spoke for an hour and a half and told the jury that the Prosecutor's Office "wanted to overwhelm them" with information and data that did not prove García Luna's guilt.

“Where is the evidence of the money?” de Castro asked.

"Lack of evidence is not evidence."

"The life of this man (García Luna) is at stake, the details matter," said the lawyer, who assured that the government's evidence is reduced to two testimonies, those of Sergio Villareal, El Grande and Jesús El Rey

, the only witnesses who said they had paid García Luna directly.

 The lawyer then tried to discredit

and

, saying that they are both trying to write “the final chapter of a sick novel…La venganza última” against García Luna.

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The defender also described the witnesses as "victimizers of thousands of people", who have committed horrible crimes and who, in exchange for their testimony, seek to stay living in the United States and "enjoy their new lives" with "work permits and residences" to them and their families.

“They act to serve themselves. They came here to serve themselves, to obtain the benefits that the Government can give them,” he said.

During the trial, both Sergio Villareal and Jesús

Zambada explained that

and other immigration benefits to stay living in the United States. Joined.

The same is the case with Óscar

Nava Valencia, former leader of the Milenio Cartel who said he gave 8 million to García Luna, and who explained that he hopes to stay in the United States once he is released from prison, where he has been for more than 13 years.

Harold Poveda Ortega, nicknamed 

 who was one of the largest cocaine suppliers that the Sinaloa Cartel had, another witness for the Prosecutor's Office, also received immigration benefits for himself and his family in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors.

Details matter, says the Prosecutor's Office

During her intervention, prosecutor Komatireddy tried to connect the testimonies of the witnesses, whose details, according to her, "show the strength of their narrative", but she assured that there was no coordination between them to agree on what they were going to say.

Komatireddy described the Sinaloa Cartel as "a global cocaine empire" and called it the "

", which uses trains, containers, planes, boats and submarines and which used one of the largest airports —the one in the capital Mexican—“in one of the largest cities in the world” to move drugs. 

Harold Poveda Ortega, alias

, told the jury precisely that he was in charge of obtaining cocaine for the cartel, first in ships and speedboats with loads between two and nine tons, and then in containers and through Mexican airports.

Other witnesses previously recounted how drug loads moved easily, without control and even with the help of the Federal Police, at the Mexico City airport.

Although

acknowledged that he never had direct contact with García Luna. 

Prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy presents final arguments during the trial against Genaro García Luna, sitting in front of a screen with the image of drug trafficker Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias El Grande.Jane Rosenberg / EFE

But the prosecutor insisted that the jury members pay attention to the

that the ex-drug traffickers have given about the alleged bribes to García Luna, and that they would prove that they are telling the truth.

"The details matter," she said.

"There is specific and direct evidence of these individuals," he added. 

The jury has heard many of those details in long, colorful tales.

Villarreal Barragán recounted that on one occasion García Luna and several of his collaborators took "some 14 or 16 million packed in cardboard boxes."

Nava Valencia said she paid $500,000 for a meeting with the former secretary in 2008 at a Guadalajara car wash to buy him protection in the cartel war, and that she later handed over another $2.5 million;

Jesús

Zambada García, the last star witness for the prosecution, recounted two meetings at the Champs-Élysées restaurant in Mexico City in which 5 million were paid.

“This case (against García Luna) has been built for more than a decade.

It took time to put the pieces together, it took time to corroborate the versions," said Komatireddy, who assured that the former drug traffickers who testified "are taking a great risk" by speaking out against "an intimidating figure with a lot of power" like García Luna.

Same script, different perspective

In a way, García Luna's lawyer resorted to the same script of the Prosecutor's Office to advocate on behalf of his client.

"The details matter," he told the jurors before reminding them of some inconsistencies in the stories told by the witnesses, including "the six versions" that, according to him, El Rey Zambada offered about the two meetings in the

restaurant where García Luna allegedly received 5 million dollars.

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As revealed during the trial, throughout various interviews with prosecutors, Zambada has offered varying details about how these payments occurred, but he attributed it to problems with his memory and failures by those who took notes during his interviews. “It's impossible. specify the details.

Memory is memory and it changes (…) sometimes they write things wrong, ”he said.

García Luna's defender, César de Castro, also attacked the Prosecutor's Office, saying that in 10 years they had not been able to find evidence to corroborate the statements of the drug traffickers and accused them of "making a deal with the devil."

"One of the main problems that the Government has is that they cannot corroborate the allegations about Genaro García Luna because none of that exists," he told the jury.

It also

from former members of the Sinaloa Cartel, and none have found information or documents proving a relationship with García Luna.

He also said that if any federal agency in the United States had suspected that García Luna was collaborating with drug trafficking, they would not have allowed him to meet with President Barack Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or Attorney General Eric Holder. and other senior government officials.

"They would not have exposed them," he said.

The defender insisted that García Luna was the United States' "most trusted partner" in the fight against drugs.

Testimonials that García Luna never expected

For her part, the prosecutor said that "the defendant never imagined that so many people would come to testify in this courtroom."

She insisted on the importance of the details offered by the former drug traffickers.

“Specificity is a hallmark of speaking the truth,” she said.

The prosecutor has placed a lot of emphasis on the value of details in an attempt to counterattack the defense strategy of reminding the jury that there is no documentary evidence to corroborate the narcos' version or to show that García Luna received millions of dollars for more than of a decade.

"There are no photos, there are no recordings, there is no video, there are no texts, no documents or credible evidence," said the defense attorney.

Genaro García Luna puts his hand over his heart in a gesture to his family sitting in the audience this Wednesday, in the Eastern Federal Court of New YorkJane Rosenberg / EFE

"To be honest, we could have ended our case after

's testimony , because if you believe him it should be enough," the prosecutor told the jury.

"He gave them the full picture (...) he explained to them why it was necessary for the cartel to pay," she remarked. 

In an attempt to make up for the lack of evidence showing that García Luna and his family had access to millions of dollars, Komatireddy said: "Politicians cannot be very ostentatious (...) for politicians money is not money to spend, it means power to buy other people.

García Luna's wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, was the only witness called by the defense to recount that the assets they amassed in Mexico —ranging from a large house in the country's capital, another country residence in Morelos and a couple of restaurants—they got them from the work and savings of both. 

Prosecutor Komatireddy used the testimony of the ex-narcos who explained how they spent and laundered their money to suggest that García Luna may have done the same.

“(Money) can be hidden in companies in other people's names,” she said.

"It was very easy for the defendant to keep up appearances and take the money elsewhere," added the prosecutor, in line with the accusations that García Luna faces in Mexico of building an illicit fortune of 745 million dollars in a corruption network with Family businesses.

But the defender counterattacked, saying that according to the version of the narcos, García Luna was paid "more than 300 million dollars" during his years as a public official.

"After working for more than 20 years, what he has is a house in Mexico City, another rest house in Morelos, a couple of restaurants, two motorcycles, a couple of cars and a beautiful fish tank. That's all." de Castro said.

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During the trial, prosecutors presented photographs and material taken from García Luna's personal computer and cell phone showing the former official's properties and assets, including the Mexico City house with a giant fish tank, which his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, assured that they were built to hide the foundations of an adjoining construction that protruded from the wall of his residence.

An impossible power without the support of the Government

In the opening arguments, the Prosecutor's Office had already anticipated that García Luna was accused of playing a crucial role in the cartel's success, thus supporting drug trafficking to the United States, between 2001 and 2012, while he held public office in Mexico (first as director of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and later in front of the Secretary of Public Security with the Government of Felipe Calderón. 

"The cartel would not have achieved all the deaths, the drug trafficking, all that it did, without the support of Genaro," prosecutor Philip Nathan Pilmar said at the first hearing. 

This Wednesday, Komatireddy maintained that line.

"The cartel had infrastructure throughout Mexico (...) to have that type of access you had to have the government on board," he remarked.

"

," he said.

The prosecutor described the "golden years" of the Sinaloa Cartel, between 2000 and 2006, when it became the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico, and said the group paid for "protection and security."

had said at the time

when talking about the supposed golden years in which the organization prospered and worked with the support of García Luna. 

The drug traffickers have described García Luna as a powerful official, the key piece in the Mexican Government to be able to operate freely, whether it is to change drug shipments, move without controls through the country, or avoid raids and arrests, in a complex balance of power in which they also pressured him if necessary, such as the alleged express kidnapping of the former secretary in the middle of the war between cartels.

Israel Ávila, a former accountant for the Sinaloa cartel, said for instance that on one occasion Mario Pineda Villa, alias

, told him: “Neither you nor we work for Genaro García Luna.

Genaro García Luna works for us”.

“

,” Komatireddy said from a podium in front of the jury and surrounded by a blackboard with photos of the drug traffickers who testified at the trial.

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The prosecutor concluded her three-hour presentation by telling the jurors: "Listen to the witnesses, follow the law, use common sense and find him (García Luna) guilty."

For his part, César de Castro not only asked the jury to declare his client's innocence, but also suggested that they discuss whether the drug trafficking charges against him had already expired, as they exceeded the 5-year term from when they were committed until they were committed. the charge was filed.

"I am not telling you that (the crimes) have occurred, what I am telling you is to analyze whether, if it has occurred, whether the statute of limitations (prescriptive period) has already been exceeded," he told them.

García Luna left his post as Secretary of Public Security of Mexico in December 2012, and was accused and arrested in the United States at the end of 2019. However, the Government alleges that by continuing to operate the Sinaloa cartel, the crimes of conspiracy for those who are accused are still valid.

This Thursday, the jury will receive the instructions for its deliberation from Judge Brian Cogan, and will withdraw to discuss the case to decide whether or not to convict the former highest-ranking Mexican official who has been tried in the United States.