García Luna would have helped the Sinaloa Cartel to buy espionage equipment, said “El Grande”

During his second attendance as a witness in the trial against Genaro Garcia LunaSergio Villarreal Barragán, alias “El Grande”, revealed that the former Secretary of Public Security would have helped the Sinaloa Cartel to buy espionage equipment.

According to the allegations of the former Beltrán Leyva lieutenant, García Luna would have been the direct link to connect the criminal group with a company that sold technical equipment to obtain secret information.

A fragment of the testimony of the “Great”, taken up by the journalist José Olivares, detailed that apparently the company was owned by a man originally from Israel and I was in Mexico Cityalthough the name of the same or the identity of the subject was not specified.

Among the supplies that the Sinaloa Cartel would have acquired thanks to García Luna were surveillance cameras, call inhibitors and wiretapping equipment.

He further stressed that Arturo Beltran Leyvamaximum leader of the clan, would have bought a special card that was capable of issuing an alert if it detected the presence of any type of microphone around it.

It should be specified that the exchange of sensitive information has been one of the main activities that García Luna would have presumably carried out during his years as a public official for the benefit of the organization of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Israel “El Mayo” Zambada.

In this same sense, one of the most memorable cases of participation of the Federal Police with the criminal group was that of Iván Reyes Arzate, aka “The Queen”former commander of the corporation.

Heading the Sensitive Investigations Unit (UIS), Reyes Arzate had access to confidential information which, in exchange for bribes, he handed over to the Sinaloa Cartel between September and November 2016, according to his own statement before Judge Brian Cogan in October 2021.

Because “El Grande” did not delve into more details regarding the espionage perpetrated from the Sinaloa Cartel with the support of García Luna, it remains to be seen if any of the other witnesses who will go to the Brooklyn Court will share new information in this regard.

Among the testimonies of Villarreal Barragán during the second day of hearings in the trial, he highlighted the variety of weapons that the criminal group had at its disposal during the years in which García Luna would have been involved with criminal activities.

According to his statements, published by the journalist Keegan Hamilton, the hitmen of the Sinaloa Cartel used AK-47 rifles (some even gold plated), AR-15 semi-automatic rifles and grenade launchers.

A particularly striking detail of the CDS weaponry is that some weapons had the legend “United States Government Property”. In that country, the members of this organization would have also bought .50 caliber rifleswhose cartridge was attractive to them since it is “very powerful”.

Bullets of this caliber are notoriously more aggressive than those used by rifles like the AK-47 and AR-15. In addition, they are often used in powerful long-range weapons (such as Barrett snipers or Browning M2 machine guns). Among the arsenal of apparent Russian origin, “El Grande” mentioned high-powered instruments, such as bazookas and other anti-tank missile launcher.

Villarreal Barragán himself acknowledged that he once owned a .38 Super pistol personalized, which had a commemorative design of the Day of the Dead and had his alias on the handle encrusted with diamonds.

KEEP READING