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News > Mexico

Narco Says He Paid $10 M to Mexico’s Former Security Chief

  • Former Mexican Security Secretary Genaro García Luna (2006-2012). Jan. 30, 2023.

    Former Mexican Security Secretary Genaro García Luna (2006-2012). Jan. 30, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@chikistrakiz

Published 30 January 2023
Opinion

Garcia Luna faces trial in the District Court of Brooklyn, New York, on charges of trafficking at least 50 tons of cocaine.

On Monday, former leader of the so-called "Cártel del Milenio" Óscar Nava Valencia, alias "El Lobo" testified in the trial against former Mexican Security Secretary Genaro García Luna (2006-2012) that he paid him more than 10 million dollars in bribes.

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The witness presented by the prosecution on the fourth day of evidentiary hearings said he was in meetings with Sinaloa Cartel leaders to agree to pay bribes in exchange for protection. 

"They told me that we were going to make a collection among all of us, that we were going to have a bigger settlement and more security for everyone," said the witness.

According to Nava, he contributed another 2.5 million dollars to a collective payment by several members of the Sinaloa Cartel to the then high-ranking Mexican government official in exchange for information protection from rival groups. 

Oscar Nava Valencia "El Lobo," former leader of the Milenio Cartel, claimed in the Garcia Luna trial that he paid $10 million to Garcia Luna when he was Mexico's Federal Public Security Secretary to provide him with protection.

The criminal organization "Los Valencia" or "Cartel del Milenio," led by Oscar Nava Valencia, began operating in the early 1990s in the west-central states of Jalisco and Michoacan. 

With an extensive network of illegal drug trafficking to the U.S., Nava was arrested on October 28, 2009, in Guadalajara and subsequently extradited to the U.S. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for cocaine trafficking.

Garcia Luna is facing the second accusation of collecting bribes from drug traffickers. The former Mexican security secretary has pleaded not guilty to the charges. 

On Sunday, the Attorney General's Office (FGR) reported that it is conducting "negotiations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and U.S. authorities to achieve the extradition of Genaro 'G.'"

"The Attorney General's Office has two arrest warrants against Genaro 'G' for crimes committed in Mexico. These are not related to the process against him in the United States," the agency said on its official Twitter account. 

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