Ex-Mexico drug czar helped Sinaloa cartel's 'cocaine empire,' U.S. prosecutor says
Mexico's former Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna sits in the courtroom during his trial on charges that he accepted millions of dollars to protect the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, once run by imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, at U.S. court in New York City, U.S., February 14, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in 2019 on charges of helping the cartel once run by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman ship drugs from Mexico to the United States. He is one of the highest-ranking Mexican officials accused of complicity with drug trafficking. Garcia Luna has pleaded not guilty. In closing statements, his lawyer Cesar de Castro portrayed him as a hardworking family man who was in fact "vigilant about fighting crime." He urged jurors not to believe convicted cartel members who testified that they knew of bribes paid to Garcia Luna for protection.
De Castro said the cooperating witnesses were out for revenge on the man who arrested them and were seeking to lessen their sentences. He said the government presented no documentary evidence, such as text messages or recordings, that backed up the witnesses' accounts that Garcia Luna was bribed.
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