NEW YORK — The twelve members of the jury in the drug trafficking case against the former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna withdrew this Thursday to deliberate on the innocence or guilt of the former official, who was once again accompanied in the courtroom by his wife. , Linda Cristina Pereyra, and her daughter Luna.
Before beginning their deliberations, US federal judge Brian Cogan spent almost two hours instructing them on the five crimes with which he was charged, four of them related to drug trafficking.
García Luna is accused of participating in the management of a criminal enterprise whose activity continues to this day, conspiracy to distribute 10 pounds or more of cocaine, conspiracy to distribute and possess 5 kilograms or more of cocaine with the intent to distribute it. into the United States and conspiracy to import the same amount or more.
GARCÍA LUNA WAS SECRETARY OF PUBLIC SECURITY IN MEXICO
The fifth offense charged against him is that of allegedly giving false testimony to the US authorities when he applied for citizenship.
But in addition, the members of the jury will have to decide, in case of convicting him, if García Luna in 2012 abandoned the conspiracy in which he participated.
In case of determining that in that year he stopped conspiring and told his alleged partners that way, then his crimes would have expired and he would only be sentenced for the last of the charges: not telling the truth when asked if he had committed a crime. crime for which he had not been prosecuted.
The jury does not have a deadline to make a decision, which, whether guilty or not guilty, must be unanimous.
Since January 23, its members have heard the testimonies of 26 witnesses called by the Prosecutor’s Office, including former drug traffickers, Mexican police officers and US agents, as well as that of García Luna’s wife, the only defense witness.
This Wednesday, they heard the final arguments of both parties again in a last attempt to convince them of their guilt beyond reasonable doubt, as the Prosecutor maintains, or of their innocence as the Defense argues.
In a three-hour long presentation, the prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy asked them yesterday to use common sense and put together the pieces of the puzzle that the Prosecutor’s Office presented in the last four weeks.
A puzzle whose main piece is the testimony of drug trafficker Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias “el Grande”, right arm of the Sinaloa cartel boss Arturo Beltrán Leyva, who claimed to have witnessed direct bribes to García Luna.
The Prosecutor’s Office defends that his story, together with that of other drug traffickers and that of the rest of the testimonies, builds a consistent edifice that demonstrates the guilt of the accused.
Something that was rejected by García Luna’s lawyer, César de Castro, who in an emotional speech once again tried to tear down that construction, attacking each of the parties with the argument that the main witnesses, all ex-drug traffickers, are criminals who are not It can be believed because they seek their own benefit by collaborating with the Prosecutor’s Office and also taking revenge on who was the face of the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico.
