Mexican president calls on former security minister to provide evidence of alleged cartel ties

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday demanded that former Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna, who was convicted in the United States last year on drug trafficking charges, provide evidence to support his accusations that the president has ties to drug trafficking.

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Lopez Obrador was responding to a letter from prison written by Garcia Luna that his lawyer had circulated to the press. Garcia Luna alleged that there was contact between Lopez Obrador and the faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was arrested in Texas in July.

The letter comes just weeks before Lopez Obrador is set to step down and after earlier allegations that Lopez Obrador’s previous presidential campaign received money from drug traffickers.

“He writes that there is evidence, there are videos, there are conversations, there are audios. It’s very simple, he should share them with the public,” Lopez Obrador said in his morning news briefing.

“He needs to provide evidence,” the president said, suggesting he ask “his friends at the DEA.”

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Garcia Luna was convicted last year of accepting huge bribes to protect the violent drug cartels he was tasked with fighting. In the letter, he insisted he was innocent.

Garcia Luna held various security positions between 2000 and 2012 under former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon, both political enemies of Lopez Obrador.

He wrote in the letter that Mexican and U.S. officials have evidence.

“There are contacts, videos, audios, photographs, communications and management records between current Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his associates with drug trafficking leaders and their families, particularly drug traffickers who were used as witnesses against me in my trial,” Garcia Luna wrote.

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The 56-year-old former Mexican top security official faces a prison sentence of 20 years to life. His sentencing is scheduled for October 9.

Garcia Luna denied the charges against him and accused the Mexican government of “lying” and “giving false information” about his case to the United States. He claimed in the letter that U.S. prosecutors offered him a deal to become a protected witness in exchange for a six-month prison sentence.

Garcia Luna said he has been held in “inhumane conditions” in the United States for nearly five years and has witnessed “murders and threats to his well-being.”

Last month, U.S. prosecutors said Garcia Luna tried to bribe other inmates to make false statements in support of his candidacy for a new trial on drug trafficking charges.

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According to Mexican authorities, Garcia Luna embezzled as much as $745.9 million from government technology contracts.

Pablo Gomez, head of Mexico’s anti-money laundering unit, said Garcia Luna and his associates set up companies that secured 30 dubious government contracts when he was Mexico’s top security official from 2006 to 2012 and for the next six years.

Garcia Luna allegedly funneled money from prison security contracts and government intelligence technology into offshore accounts, many of which were in Barbados, and then sent the money to Miami to buy expensive condos and vintage cars. ____

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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