- Writing
- BBC News World
Genaro García Luna’s wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, has gone to the Court every day where the trial against the former Mexican Secretary of Security is being held.
“Yes sir. It’s my decision.”
With these words, Genaro García Luna rejected before the judge the possibility of testifying in the trial for drug trafficking that is being held against him in New York once this Tuesday the list of witnesses summoned by the Prosecutor’s Office with the testimony of Jesús “el King” Zambada.
The former Mexican Security Secretary thus ruled out answering both his defense and prosecutors’ questions, and prevented his public version of the multiple accusations made against him in the trial by drug traffickers and former officials, such as that of having received millionaire bribes in exchange for letting organized crime act.
However, there was one person who took the stand at the request of García Luna’s lawyer as a witness this Tuesday: his wife Linda Cristina Pereyra.
The woman, who went to the Brooklyn court every day where the process has been held since last month, justified the income and family properties that the Prosecutor’s Office had previously presented as a product of the bribes that her husband allegedly received from the cartels.
Pereyra assured that his income and the subsequent purchase and sale of real estate have been increasing since they met in 1989 – when they both worked at the National Security Investigation Center of Mexico – as García Luna rose in his positions and improved his salary.
The witness affirmed that the various homes and businesses that were subsequently acquired and sometimes sold were purchased thanks to obtaining loans and mortgages.
According to Pereyra, these purchases were also possible thanks to different bonuses received by García Luna at work, as well as the money he received at the end of his work as head of the Federal Investigation Agency in 2006.
image source, Archyde.com
Pereyra testified before her husband in the Brooklyn Court this Tuesday.
vintage cars and motorcycles
The Prosecutor’s Office showed the jury images of a vintage car and of García Luna’s motorcycles as evidence of the alleged bribes and asked his wife why the defendant had vehicles of these characteristics.
Pereyra replied that her husband he was fond of collecting them and he said that, together with his brother, they repaired them and then sold them on some occasions.
At another point in her statement, the woman showed the invoices for two Harley-Davidson motorcycles she owned. The drug trafficker Sergio Villarreal, alias el Grande, assured in his statement at the trial that the Beltrán Leyva clan He had given García Luna a motorcycle for supporting the Sinaloa cartel.
“I come to support my husband, but with the truth”assured Pereyra, who showed patrimonial declarations in which all the income of the different businesses of the marriage would have been included.
Parallel to this case, the Mexican Financial Intelligence Unit is leading another lawsuit in the United States against García Luna and others implicated in an alleged corruption scheme through which they would have stolen US$745.9 million from the Mexican treasury.
According to this body, García Luna built a money laundering network through various companies during his government career and after leaving public office, which would have allowed him to transfer funds to tax havens with which he bought real estate and cars. luxury in the usa
Among the people that the Mexican government sued in the US in 2021 for their alleged involvement in this case there is also Linda Cristina Pereyra herself.
image source, Getty Images
García Luna could face up to life in prison for drug trafficking.
With his wife’s statement this Tuesday, the presentation of evidence by the Prosecutor’s Office and Defense in the trial against García Luna was concluded.
Both parties are expected to deliver their final arguments this Wednesday, before the jury goes on to deliberate and then issues its verdict on the five charges of which the former official is accused related to drug trafficking, organized crime and for making false statements to the authorities. from USA
If found guilty, García Luna could receive a sentence of between 10 years and life imprisonment.