NEW YORK.- The former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, Genaro García Luna, would have offered to pay up to $2 million dollars to an inmate to invent a plot against him by witnesses who testified in the drug trafficking trial.
“GGL initially offered $500,000. GGL subsequently offered $1 million and $2 million to provide these statements,” says one of the partially sealed documents prosecutors submitted to the court.
The evidence indicates that García Luna promised the money from an “undersecretary” of Mexico, who would make a first part of the payment in that country and another after the appeal.
“GGL explained that an undersecretary would provide the payments. “GGL explained that it would receive a partial payment for its initial statements and that the remaining payments would be paid after the appeal,” the document states.
That and other evidence was presented by prosecutors from the Eastern District Court of New York in response to new evidence offered by defense attorney, César de Castro, who in a post-trial motion asked to overturn the jury’s guilty decision and hold another trial.
“For the reasons stated, the Court must deny the defendant’s request for a new trial,” say prosecutors in a 67-page document summarizing much of the trial that occurred in February 2023. “Because the defense’s alleged evidence ‘ is not a recent discovery as a matter of law’ and because, even if accepted as true, it does not undermine faith in the jury’s verdict.”
They add that other witnesses in the trial of the former secretary testified credibly about the acceptance of bribes by García Luna of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Prosecutors are even asking Judge Brian Cogan not to accept an additional motion and go directly to sentencing, scheduled for June 24.
The defense can still file a response to prosecutors’ new allegations, after which Judge Cogan can make a determination.
What was the alleged plot about?
An inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn whose name was not revealed claims that there was coordination between Juan Nava Valencia, alias “El Trigre”; Juan Nava Valencia, alias “El Lobo”, and Édgar Veytia, former attorney general of the state of Nayarit and known as “El Diablo”.
The inmate signed a sworn document to lawyer De Castro, where he states that he became a “close friend” of “El Trigre”, who with his brother, “El Lobo”, who in turn would have communicated with Veytia with whom the witness later Anonymous shared a cell and provided him with more information.
“Mr. Veytia told me that he was in constant contact with El Tigre and Lobo through cell phone smuggling during his confinement at MDC,” his statement reads.
Veytia reportedly told his cellmate that his sentence could be reduced if he cooperated against García Luna, but new evidence refutes such facts.