Anxiety, cold and tears: this is how the day was lived in court where Genaro García Luna was found guilty of drug trafficking

BROOKLYN, New York—

At 4:00 am this Tuesday there were already a handful of journalists waiting in front of the doors of the Federal Court for the Eastern District, in New York.

Some had arrived after midnight and all wanted to be in the courtroom where the verdict against Genaro García Luna would be read.

The tedious wait on a rainy winter morning, at 4°C, was worth it because of the historic nature of the decision: the defendant is the highest-ranking former Mexican official to be tried in the United States, Mexico's "supercop", the architect of the war against drugs of the Government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), who allowed himself to be seduced by the money of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The doors of the federal building opened shortly before 8:00 am.

From early on, some tension was perceived in

and running for almost a month to be able to be in the public benches and hear first-hand. to the ex-drug traffickers who sank García Luna with their stories of millionaire bribes.

[Genaro García Luna, Mexico's drug czar, found guilty of all charges against him for drug trafficking in New York]

After a long weekend, due to the Monday holiday, no one knew what was going to happen.

Some predicted that the jury discussion could last another day or two.

Others hoped that Tuesday itself would bring news of a verdict.

Meanwhile, the courtroom served as a refuge to rest while awaiting the decision;

the eyes of the artist Jane Rosenberg, who is usually in charge of drawing what happens during hearings, turned to the press benches.

In her role, a row of sleeping journalists, awake and cold to the bone, was captured, recovering energy for what was to come.

Illustration by artist Jane Rosenberg shows journalists resting in court, after arriving at midnight to secure a seat, during the trial of former Mexican Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, this Tuesday, February 21, in the Eastern Federal Court from New York. Jane Rosenberg / EFE

In the cold dining room of the federal building, at a small solitary table, García Luna's family —

, even at times they smiled.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the same building, Genaro García Luna awaited the decision that could physically separate him from his family forever.

Shortly before 2:00 pm, the jury asked the prosecutors and García Luna's defense for parts of the testimony of Jesús

Zambada, brother of 

 Zambada, current leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, who declared during the trial that he paid the former official five million dollars in cash in a Mexico City restaurant, as well as additional information from the testimony of a former Coast Guard agent who participated in a drug seizure of the cartel in 2006. That led some present to assume that the The jury was still far from reaching a unanimous agreement.

But only 30 minutes later the long-awaited announcement came: there is a verdict.

Immediately, the courtroom was packed: two dozen journalists, most of them in the back benches, García Luna's family, officials from the Prosecutor's Office and the Court, some officers from the Federal Bailiffs Service, two illustrators and all. the team of prosecutors and defense attorneys in the center of the compound, waiting for the judge.

[The ex-narco 'El Rey' Zambada assures that García Luna received millionaire bribes.

The former secretary declines to testify at his trial]

Genaro García Luna entered the room dressed in a black suit, with a dark striped tie.

.

His family was holding hands.

In the room he was perceived anxiety and nerves.

Some people remained standing, others whispered, until Judge Brian M. Cogan arrived, the same one who presided over the trial against Joaquín El

Guzmán in 2018. The same compound, almost the same story, but another defendant.

AMLO says that Calderón "went off on a tangent" by distancing himself from García Luna for his sentence

Feb 22, 202302:06

Without pausing, Cogan asked the lawyers, "Is there any reason why this verdict should not be entered?"

"No, your honor from him," they replied.

Two knocks were then heard on a door, which announced the entry of the jury.

When the 12 members of the panel entered, at 2:45 pm, García Luna crossed himself.

After juror number one confirmed that they had a verdict, Cogan asked for the document stating the decision.

After reviewing it, he asked the parties to come closer for a private conversation, a

as the area near the judge's chair and away from where the jury is called in English.

[AMLO trusts that García Luna will act as a witness after his conviction for drug trafficking and "clarify whether he received orders" from Calderón or Fox]

Maybe it was nerves, maybe inexperience.

But the panel members forgot to mark on the sheet their decision on the number one organized crime charge.

The jury had to withdraw for five minutes to correct the error.

Meanwhile, the judge asked those present to remain in the courtroom.

With the corrected document, Judge Cogan immediately proceeded to read the verdict.

It was a sudden decision: guilty of all the charges — three related to drug trafficking, another for organized crime and one for lying in his application for US citizenship — which will mean a minimum of 20 years in prison for García Luna.

The former official

.

Only the crying of two journalists who reacted was heard, among them the Mexican Anabel Hernández, who for years has investigated García Luna and who had to leave Mexico in 2014, after denouncing death threats after revealing in 2008 the links of the former secretary of Security with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Hernández traveled from Europe to cover the trial and was preparing to return, thinking she would not witness the verdict, when news of the decision reached her.

Genaro García Luna's wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, (right), leaves federal court in Brooklyn, New York, after her husband was found guilty of accepting bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, this Tuesday, February 21, 2023. Justin Lane / EFE

Judge Cogan praised the work of the jury—six women and six men, all New Yorkers—and thanked them, reminding them that the practice in the United States of leaving complex criminal cases to a panel of civilians is rare among judicial systems of the world.

“Few countries do this, but we do.

We do it because we trust you, we trust your common sense, ”he told them, before they left.

The session

.

Before leaving escorted by two bailiffs, García Luna hugged his lawyers, looked at his family and made a sign with his hand over his heart.

The ex-drug czar of Mexico, who was once photographed with President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, headed out the right door of the room for a destination with only one stop: prison.

Genaro García Luna's lawyer, César de Castro (in blue), speaks to the press outside the Eastern District federal court in Brooklyn, New York, after his client was found guilty of cooperating with drug trafficking.

Justin Lane / EFE

Immediately, the journalists rushed to take the elevator—the courtroom is on the eighth floor—some ran to the press room on the third floor, where they sat down to write, and others outside where their cameramen were waiting to announce the news. to the world.

As information exploded like wildfire in Mexico, the Attorney General's team, led by Saritha Komatireddy, an attorney who graduated with honors from Harvard University and a former assistant to current Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, left the building without saying a word. .

"It took time to put the pieces together, it took time to corroborate the versions...(...) the defendant never imagined that so many people would come to testify in this courtroom," Komatireddy had said when he presented his conclusions to the jury, the previous Wednesday.