A Mexican judge has issued arrest warrants for three crimes against the former Minister of Security Genaro Garcia Lunaarrested in the United States for alleged links to drug trafficking, the Attorney General’s Office reported Thursday.
The accusations against the former official, 53, are for association criminal, enrichment illicit and arms trafficking, detailed a statement.
There are other investigations against the former official, in the framework of which legal assistance from the United States has been requested, added the Prosecutor’s Office.
García Luna, close to the former president Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), was arrested in December 2019 in Texas and is accused by a New York court of receiving millionaire bribes from the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for granting protection and help to traffic cocaine to the United States.
On Wednesday, local media published that prosecutors in New York would have presented a series of audios in which García Luna would admit that he threatened journalists who were investigating him when he was Secretary of Security.
The prosecution also indicates, according to versions, of having tried to manipulate witnesses.
Regarding these revelations, during his morning press conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on the United States to make these recordings public.
“It is a very delicate matter (…) I would ask from now on that regardless of whether the recordings have legal value or not, hopefully and find a way to make them known,” he said.
He added that justice also has to do with making known “acts of abuse of authority, repression, corruption, so that nothing else remains in court.”
In December 2020, Mexico submitted a request to the United States to extradite García Luna, whom he accused of corruption at the time.
This is the highest-ranking former official detained for alleged links against drug trafficking.
Until the moment of his capture in the United States, there were no charges against García Luna in Mexico.