Convicted Mexican security chief publishes letter from prison linking President AMLO to drug cartels

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, is currently awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), the same facility where Genaro Garcia Luna is currently being heldthe former Mexican security chief who was convicted of secretly protecting former drug lord El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel itself for years.

On Wednesday, In a letter from García Luna, leaked to news organizations including La Opinión, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his associates were accused of having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.

“It is common knowledge and documented in the official archives of Mexico and the United States, the contacts, videos, photographs, communications and management reports between the current President of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador, and his associates, drug cartel leaders and their families,” García Luna claims in his four-page letter.

He also says that these connections were made with witnesses who attended his own trial:

“(Those contacts) especially with the drug traffickers who were used as witnesses against me during the trial, who even during the trial accused President López Obrador and his associates of having ties with them and being involved in drug trafficking.”

García Luna, who will be sentenced in early October, then cites a letter made public by Zambada’s lawyer, which he says further confirms the ties with AMLO. The letter in question does not directly confirm these connections, but mentions a planned meeting with Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of Sinaloa and a close ally of AMLO. Rocha denies these accusations.

García Luna also says that US prosecutors have offered him several plea deals, and that he has refused them all.He further alleges that recent judicial reforms in Mexico, which he describes as beneficial to criminals, are part of a broader conspiracy involving both governments.

García Luna’s sentencing is scheduled for October 9, and he could receive life in prison. In August, a New York judge rejected García Luna’s request for a new trial, a petition based on evidence of an alleged conspiracy among inmates to give false testimony. However, the judge refuted those claims with evidence showing an attempt by García Luna to bribe a witness with amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2 million to fabricate favorable testimony.