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

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday demanded that former Public Security Minister Genaro García 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.

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

The letter came just weeks before López Obrador is set to step down and after earlier allegations that López 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,” López Obrador said in his morning news briefing.

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

García 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 Calderón, both political enemies of López 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 Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his associates with drug trafficking leaders and their families, particularly drug traffickers who were used as witnesses against me in my trial,” García Luna wrote.

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.

García 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.

García 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 García Luna tried to bribe other inmates to make false statements in support of his candidacy for a new trial on drug trafficking charges.

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

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

García 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. ____

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