This Is How García Luna Was Kidnapped And Ended Up Drinking Whiskey With Arturo Beltrán Leyva

A witness during the trial of the former public official during the Calderón administration assured that he kidnapped the Mexican on the orders of a drug trafficker.

Despite his elegant clothes and his assurances that he is innocent, his behavior is the same as that of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo, were the words of Judge Brian Cogan after sentencing Genaro García Luna to 38 years in prison in the United States for his relationship with the Sinaloa Cartel and other criminal organizations.

The relationship between the former Secretary of Public Security, during the Felipe Calderón administration, with different drug trafficking figures in Mexico not only led him to jail, but also, in the past, was the reason why the former public official was abducted. MILENIO tells you about the day García Luna was kidnapped.

Who ordered the kidnapping of García Luna? This is how the crime occurred

During the trials prior to the sentencing of the former Secretary of Public Security, a drug trafficker identified as Sergio Enrique Villarreal Barragán, El Grande, —who at one time was the head of hitmen for the Beltrán Leyva Cartel— assured that he kidnapped García Luna on orders of one of the leaders of that criminal cell.

According to El Grande’s testimony, the events occurred when García Luna was still director of the Mexican Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), that is, between 2001 and 2006 (during the government of Vicente Fox), when armed men of Arturo Beltrán Leyva kidnapped him while he was traveling on the Tepoztlán-Cuernavaca highway, in Morelos.

It is worth mentioning that these events were confirmed by two other hitmen who acted as witnesses during the trial of the former official. Óscar Nava Valencia, El Lobo, and the Colombian Harold Poveda, El Conejo, each assured —each one on their own— that the leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel ordered the kidnapping of Genaro García Luna.

An article in the Los Angeles Times recounts El Grande’s testimony, stating that the convoy in which García Luna was traveling was intercepted by hitmen who surrounded the victim’s bodyguards. However, he preferred to speak with Arturo Beltrán Leyva before a conflict broke out at the scene of the crime.

According to the drug trafficker, while the convoy of bodyguards accompanying the former Secretary of Public Security consisted of seven trucks, the leader of the Beltrán Leyva managed to gather almost 100 hitmen, who participated in the alleged kidnapping of García Luna.

According to the witness, the criminal group blocked the road on which the Mexican was traveling with more than 35 vehicles, although —in the words of El Grande— García Luna’s safety was never at risk, since the criminal leader’s order was to take the official alive.

The alleged kidnapping against Genaro García Luna has been taken up by some journalists over the years, some other details of the event are:

At the moment in which the convoy of the former official was surrounded by Arturo Beltrán Leyva’s men, only El Grande got out of the hostile vehicles with open arms —as a sign of peace—, with the objective that García Luna would recognize him and talk to him.

El Grande also recounted that, at that moment, García Luna approached him along with some bodyguards. However, the Mexican refused to greet the hitman, which set the tone of the small conversation in which the alleged kidnapper asked the former director of the AFI to accompany him to speak with the leader of the Beltrán Leyva and that this would be “by fair means or foul.”

Allegedly, Genaro García Luna accepted, although he asked El Grande to give him the address of the meeting point, but the hitman didn’t agree, since he had orders to make sure that the meeting between the former public official and the criminal leader was held in the state of Morelos.

In this manner, El Grande and Genaro García Luna got into a car escorted by a convoy of hitmen and bodyguards of the official headed to a safe house of Arturo Beltrán Leyva.

It is worth mentioning that the testimony of the former head of the Beltrán Leyva hitman was crucial to link the former director of Public Security, with organized crime.

Kidnapping or chance meeting? Motives

On the eve of the so-called War on Drugs, some criminal organizations began to have problems and armed confrontations for the control of certain places in Mexican territory, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva, who years ago had fragmented.

The Beltrán Leyva brothers, who were one of the most powerful factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, blamed El Chapo Guzmán for the arrest of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, so they decided to create their own criminal organization.

Because of this the brothers founded the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, which had a presence in Morelos, Guerrero and the State of Mexico.

In the book El Licenciado, García Luna, Calderón y El Narco, by Jesús Lemus, the testimony of El Grande about the kidnapping of the former public official is also taken up, even before he spoke at the trial in the United States. It explains that prior to the Mexican’s abduction there was already a relationship between the politician and the drug trafficker.

What is the book El Licenciado, García Luna, Calderón y El Narco about?

It’s an investigation into the relationships that García Luna maintained during two PAN administrations with the main drug lords. After several testimonies from criminals and drug trafficking actors, it is revealed how Calderón’s former Secretary of Public Security was an ally of major drug traffickers.

El Grande mentioned that the alleged kidnapping occurred after García Luna and Arturo Beltrán Leyva agreed to a collaboration agreement, on the day of the events, the criminal leader only wanted to talk about some things with the former official.

However, for a long time, the former director of the AFI had been postponing the meeting, so when Arturo Beltrán Leyva found out that he was in the state of Morelos, he decided to intercept him to guarantee the conversation.

For their part, El Lobo and El Conejo mentioned in the trial against the man also known as El Licenciado that the leader of the Beltrán Leyva only wanted to make sure that García Luna continued to favor his criminal faction instead of the one then headed by El Chapo Guzmán and El Mayo Zambada.

That is why many media outlets point out that it was not a full-blown kidnapping, but rather an invitation from the leader of the Beltrán Leyva to García Luna to talk about business, a meeting in which it was said that they even drank whiskey and had a party hosted by Joan Sebastian.

What was the meeting between García Luna and Arturo Beltrán Leyva like?

The Los Angeles Times article mentions that the meeting between the criminal leader and the recently sentenced man was full of respect between the two characters; however, they didn’t waste the moment to have fun and drink a few shots of whiskey until the evening.

According to El Grande, Hector, another of the Beltrán Leyva brothers, was also present at the meeting, who along with Arturo greeted García Luna with a strong handshake.

What exactly was discussed that day? It’s something that isn’t known for sure, only the high commands were present, while the waiter service that the Beltrán Leyvas had was suspended after the arrival of the former official.

Finally, the meeting turned into a party because the criminal leader ordered his right-hand man to be accompanied by a singer trusted by Arturo Beltran Leyva.

Source: Milenio