US Judge Claims That There Are No New Trials For Mexico Drug Czar

A former top Mexican law enforcement official convicted on U.S. corruption charges last year does not deserve a new trial despite attempting to pay a fellow jail inmate to falsely claim that the government’s case was tainted, a US judge said on Wednesday.

Lawyers for Garcia Luna urged U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan to grant a new trial

Genaro Garcia Luna, former Mexico’s public security minister, was found guilty by a Brooklyn jury in February 2023 of taking millions of dollars in bribes from cartels in exchange for shielding members from arrest and allowing safe cocaine shipments.

Garcia Luna’s attorneys requested a new trial from U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, citing evidence of key witnesses’ lies and illegal communications with cooperating witnesses for the prosecution before trial.

“This was a clear scheme by defendant to obstruct justice through bribery,”

According to the judge, Garcia Luna paid a fellow prisoner at the Brooklyn-based Metropolitan Detention Centre $2 million to support a false allegation made by another prisoner that two cooperating witnesses had communicated via illegal telephones.

He wrote “This was a clear scheme by defendant to obstruct justice through bribery,”

An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Garcia Luna’s attorney. Cogan claimed Garcia Luna’s solicitors were unaware of the falsity of the evidence they were proposing.

Garcia Luna, 56, could face life in prison

Garcia Luna, a former Mexican official accused of drug trafficking, could face life in prison upon his Oct. 9 sentence. The former drug czar is among the highest-ranking Mexican officials accused of drug trafficking

Prosecutors claim he was on the payroll of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who led the Sinaloa cartel, and worked closely with U.S. counter-narcotics and intelligence agencies.

Guzman was found guilty in 2019 of narcotics trafficking and is currently incarcerated for life in a maximum-security facility in Colorado.