Former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna challenged the 38-year prison sentence imposed on him by a US judge for collaborating with the Sinaloa Cartel in the exercise of his official duties during the six-year term of PAN President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). The former official’s defense claims there were serious due process violations committed by prosecutors and the judge in the case, Brian Cogan, such as admitting false testimony, as has been alleged. Millennium this Friday. García Luna’s lawyers argue that these failures have “irreparably” contaminated the process, which is why they are requesting the cancellation of the trial or, at least, its resumption.
The appeal, presented before a new court in New York, according to the newspaper, argues that at least two cooperating witnesses for the prosecution made false incriminating statements, which García Luna’s lawyers were able to distort with evidence that was ultimately not taken into account. One example is the story of the alleged kidnapping of García Luna by the Beltrán Leyva cartel in retaliation for his collaboration with the Beltrán Leyva cartel. El Chapo Guzman. According to the former secretary’s defense, on the same day, García Luna was in a hospital to pay the bill for a service rendered to his wife.
The former official’s defense accuses other procedural flaws, such as the fact that Judge Cogan authorized during the trial the exhibition – unrelated to the case – of properties testifying to García Luna’s assets, which gave the jury a bad impression of the accused. The lawyers also claim that in other similar trials where high-ranking officials have been convicted of drug trafficking, the sentences are not as harsh (in the case of García Luna, in addition to the 38 years in prison, he was ordered to pay a fine of two million dollars).
That of García Luna was one of the most explosive cases in recent years, since no former Mexican official of the same level had been prosecuted for corruption and organized crime. His ties to former President Calderón and the PAN fueled a major political coup in Mexico. Convicted in 2024, García Luna is set to serve just two years of his long sentence.
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