Mexico’s former safety chief goes on trial in US drug case
By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — An anonymous jury has gotten its first look at a rare U.S. trial of a former cabinet-level Mexican official charged with taking bribes to aid drug traffickers he was supposed to be neutralizing. Opening statements were delivered Monday for Genaro García Luna’s trial in a Brooklyn federal court. His lawyers say there’s no credible evidence against him and that the case is built on the word of cartel members. His case folds in Mexico’s politics, its vast and violent drug trade, uncomfortable connections between the two, and delicate U.S.-Mexico relations about fighting drugs and corruption.
