“Ivan” for Borderland Beat 

In his testimony in the third week of the trial of Genaro Garcia Luna in the United States, Oscar Nava Valencia, alias El Lobo, a former leader of the Milenio Cartel, said he paid Mexico’s former Public Security Secretary $10 million in exchange for protection and information about his rivals.

El Lobo is the second drug trafficker to testify that he gave cash to Felipe Calderon’s right-hand man during his time as president, according to the New York Times’ Alan Feur.

Oscar Valencia told the jury that Arturo Beltrán-Leyva and La Barbie Valdez told him the money was going to García Luna.

He also told the jury that Joaquin El Chapo Guzman told him that Garcia Luna worked with the Sinaloa Cartel.

He added that in 2007, after a massive coca shipment was seized en route to Manzanillo, Colima, Arturo Beltrán invited him to his home in Cuernacaca for a meeting with García Luna; “he said, ‘friend, I present you Genaro García Luna,'” he said.

García Luna, he said, helped him by delivering documents showing that the U.S. government had traced cocaine from Colombia.

That was to convince the Colombian suppliers that it was not a security problem on the Mexican side.

He also said that in 2008, when the Beltran Leyva started the war with the Sinaloa Cartel side, he paid Garcia Luna for protection when he was caught in the middle of the war.

RIODOCE