The Time That The AFI Was Accused Of Being The Armed Wing Of The Sinaloa Cartel

Mica for cartelinsider.com

In the early 2000s, when Genaro García Luna took over the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), it was accused of being the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel, apparently for being responsible for its protection, both for its members and for the merchandise they were moving to the United States.

According to journalist Anabel Hernández, officials Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Francisco Javier Garza Palacios, Facundo Rosas Rosas, Édgar Millán Gómez, Roberto Velasco, Armando Espinoza de Benito, Igor Labastida, Luis Manuel Becerril Mina, Gerardo Garay Cadena, and Ramón Pequeño are some of the alleged individuals involved.

The Internal Affairs unit of the now-defunct PGR was responsible for denouncing them for corruption and ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as being identified as their armed branch during the war they had with the Gulf and Zetas.

“During his tenure at the AFI, Genaro García Luna and his closest collaborators, Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Francisco Javier Garza Palacios, Facundo Rosas Rosas, Édgar Millán Gómez, Roberto Velasco, Armando Espinoza de Benito, Igor Labastida, Luis Manuel Becerril Mina, Gerardo Garay Cadena, Ramón Pequeño, among other officials, were accused of corruption and ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, García Luna and his people profited from bribes during the Sinaloa Cartel’s war against the Gulf and Zetas, the AFI was an armed branch of ‘El Mayo’, ‘El Chapo’ and Arturo Beltrán Leyva on more than one occasion,” journalist Anabel Hernández stated in her book ‘The Traitor’.”

During that period, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, and Arturo Beltrán Leyva, who was still a member of the organization, enjoyed total impunity from the authorities, because they carried out their drug operations and were still protected by the AFI.

Genaro García Luna allegedly received around three million dollars in bribes during Vicente Fox’s presidency, when he was in charge of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), in order for members of the Sinaloa Cartel to influence certain decisions.

‘El Mayo’ Zambada was interested in having Norberto Higueras Beltrán become the regional chief of the AFI in Culiacán, so he would have given him a large sum of money for this request to become a reality.

During the Fox administration, the head of the AFI (Federal Investigations Agency), Genaro García Luna, received three million dollars in bribes from ‘El Mayo’. These were personally delivered by ‘Rey’, with the objective of appointing Norberto Higueras Beltrán as regional chief of the AFI in Culiacán. ‘El Mayo’ obtained what he wanted and Higueras Beltrán, who had previously worked for the AFI and the Judicial Police since 1986, was transferred from Hidalgo to Culiacán during García Luna’s term from 2003 to 2006. ‘Rey’ stated that ‘El Mayo’ wanted him there because he had him under his control. Later, he was sent to serve as Regional Chief of the AFI in Durango, another territory controlled by ‘El Mayo’ and the Sinaloa Cartel, where he served from 2006 to 2011. This information is detailed in Anabel Hernández’s book.

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Mica

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