Genaro García Luna’s defense has subpoenaed his wife Cristina Pereyra to testify at the drug trafficking trial in New York. The former Public Safety Minister’s lawyers have ruled that Pereyra is the only witness they will put on the stand after prosecutors finalized their list of suspects this Tuesday. The call came a day after her husband decided not to discuss the charges against him at the trial.
Pereyra was present at all hearings in her husband’s court case, who was charged with cocaine trafficking, organized crime and making false statements to US authorities. Owners of restaurants and cafeterias, the couple used a company registered in their name in Miami to apply for US citizenship, where the couple resided after García Luna left his position as a civil servant at the end of the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). had laid down. The allegation of false testimony is related to this application from 2019, when García Luna assured that he had not committed any crime.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), the anti-money laundering arm of Mexico’s Treasury, sued García Luna and Pereyra in late 2021 for diversion of more than $700 million in public funds. The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, represented by a US law firm, advanced the case through a civil trial in a Florida court running parallel to the criminal trial in New York.
“Yes. It’s my decision,” García Luna replied when Judge Brian Cogan asked him if he would refuse to take the stand to testify. The trial is practically in its final stages, with closing arguments scheduled for this week This is the final presentation by both parties before the jury’s deliberations and the judge’s instructions on completing the sentencing form.
information under development
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