Trial of García Luna: “El Conejo” revealed that his arrest in 2010 was a setup

On one more day of the trial against Genaro García Luna in the Brooklyn Court, Harold Mauricio Poveda Ortega, aka “El Conejo”joined the list of drug traffickers who have collaborated as witnesses in this case.

Poveda Ortega began his collaboration with the Sinaloa Cartel in the year 2000. He was in charge of linking the “big drug traffickers” of Colombia with the Mexicans for the transfer of drugs to the United States. According to his statements, he was responsible for trafficking over a thousand tons of cocaine.

In addition to details about his relationship with Arturo Beltran Leyva and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada“El Conejo” offered revealing statements about his capture in November 2010, as he assured that everything was a setup.

The official information, shared at that time by Ramon Little Garcia —former head of the Anti-drug Division— maintained that Harold Poveda had been apprehended early Friday morning November 5, 2010 in the Federal District, today Mexico City.

However, according to reports from journalists who cover García Luna’s trial in New York in person, “El Conejo” confessed that they actually stopped him a day earlier, on November 4.

He was surprised by Federal Police agents around four in the afternoon of that day while he was eating with his girlfriend in a restaurant in the capital, according to their testimonies taken up by The country.

The federal government of Felipe Calderón recognized at that time that characters such as Édgar Valdez Villarreal, alias “La Barbie”, and Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias “El Grande”, were essential for the investigation against “Rabbit”.

“El Conejo” revealed that after his capture he was not presented before a judge or before the extinct Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), but the uniformed officers took him to a house that he could not identify, since he was blindfolded.

In that place, the officers tortured him for hours with blows and electric shocks to force him to record on video. a false confessionwhich would have been dictated by the same policemen.

“They start putting mineral water up my nose and they cover my mouth […] They blindfolded me, they put a plastic bag on me to suffocate […] They stripped me naked, they gave me electric shocks […] Until I couldn’t take it anymore,” Poveda Ortega confessed.

During the hours that he was deprived of his liberty, “El Conejo” was forced to answer all the questions regarding the location of both his homes and his fortune. He himself acknowledged that had more than 20 properties and, after torture, the PF agents forced him to indicate the exact locations on a device with Google Maps.

What was the purpose of all this? According to his version, the policemen they wanted to know the addresses to go loot them. After the members of the PF apparently robbed the “Rabbit’s” houses, they blindfolded him again and made him touch various things with his hands.

“I touched and felt that they were bullets, chargers, long weapons, a goat’s horn [AK-47]an AR-15 and they made me touch a kilo of cocaine”, he mentioned during the hearing. With this, his traces would have been embodied in the objects, which would allow him to be linked with them.

“El Conejo” was presented as a public detainee until the 5th of November. The images of his exposure to the media were offered as a victory for the government of Felipe Calderón in his “war against drugs.” As was common in those years, the detainee appeared together with a command of security agents and in front of an official vehicle.

“There they put me with the weapons and drugs that made me play […] That they planted me”, added Poveda Ortega.