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A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 31 January 2023

Smuggler tells U.S. jury he paid off ex-Mexico security chief

By JENNIFER PELTZ the drugs were incinerated,
Associated Press Nava Valencia said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Describ- At a meeting about a
ing meetings at a car wash month later in a cartel big-
and a smuggler’s country wig’s country house outside
house, a onetime drug traf- the central Mexican city of
ficker testified Monday that Cuernavaca, García Luna
he paid a former cabinet- said he hadn’t been able
level Mexican security of- to intervene because the
ficial millions of dollars for U.S. government and Mexi-
help that included U.S. gov- can marines had been in-
ernment information about volved in the seizure, Nava
a huge cocaine shipment Valencia testified.
in Mexico. But he said García Luna
Óscar Nava Valencia, came through in another
known as “El Lobo,” said the way: He later provided a
payments to former securi- document showing that
ty secretary Genaro García the U.S. government had
Luna also were intended to known about the shipment
assure protection at a time and its origins, information
when a schism in the no- that the Mexican traffick-
torious Sinaloa cartel was ers used to persuade their
heading toward a drug- irritated Colombian suppli-
world war. ers that the problem had
García Luna and a high- Mexico’s Secretary of Public Safety Genaro Garcia Luna attends a press conference on the been on the Colombians’
ranking police official “said sidelines of an American Police Community meeting in Mexico City, Oct. 8, 2010. end. The Colombians then
they were going to stand Associated Press backed off their demand
with us,” Nava Valencia the case rests on lies from nickname means “the Nava Valencia told jurors for a $50 million reimburse-
told jurors at García Luna’s self-interested criminals. wolf” in Spanish pleaded he paid $5 million to García ment, Nava Valencia said.
U.S. federal drug trafficking García Luna has pleaded guilty years ago to co- Luna and other high-level Nava Valencia recounted
trial. not guilty, and his lawyers caine conspiracy. He once government officials to try a second face-to-face
García Luna is accused of have said the former cabi- helmed Mexico’s Milenio to free a shipping container meeting with García Luna
accepting millions of dol- net member tried earnestly drug cartel. packed with 10 tons (9,070 some time later, amid a rift
lars to let the Sinaloa cartel to combat the drug trade That enterprise had ties to kg) of Colombian cocaine in the Sinaloa cartel. Nava
operate with impunity as it and is being abandoned the Sinaloa cartel during after it was seized in the Valencia ultimately aligned
sent tons of cocaine to the by a U.S. government that the reign of infamous king- Mexican Pacific Coast port with Guzman’s faction,
U.S. once viewed him as a part- pin Joaquin “El Chapo” of Manzanillo around 2007. which worried that its allies-
Defense lawyers haven’t ner. Guzman, whose recent U.S. The traffickers didn’t get turned-adversaries would
yet had their chance to Nava Valencia who is trial aired testimony about the drugs back; indeed, turn to informing authorities
question Nava Valencia, sometimes known as “El alleged payoffs to García another 10-ton container so as to get police to harass
but they have argued that Lobo” Valencia and whose Luna. was seized days later, and their rivals.q

Ex-Twitter execs to testify on block of

Hunter Biden story

By FARNOUSH AMIRI election. The New York Post first re-
Associated Press Republicans have said the ported in October 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — For- story was suppressed for that it had received from
mer Twitter employees are political reasons, though former President Donald
expected to testify next no evidence has been Trump’s personal attorney,
week before the House released to support that Rudy Giuliani, a copy of a
Oversight Committee claim. hard drive of a laptop that
about the social media The witnesses for the Feb. Hunter Biden had dropped
platform’s handling of re- 8 hearing are expected to off 18 months earlier at a
porting on President Joe be Vijaya Gadde, former Delaware computer repair A sign at Twitter headquarters is shown in San Francisco, Dec.
8, 2022.
Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. chief legal officer; James shop and never retrieved. Associated Press
The scheduled testimony, Baker, former deputy gen- Twitter initially blocked
confirmed by the commit- eral counsel; and Yoel people from sharing links to was “unacceptable.” to denigrate Joe Biden
tee Monday, will be the Roth, former head of safety the story for several days. The Post article at the time ahead of the 2020 election.
first time the three former and integrity. Months later, Twitter’s then- was greeted with skep- The Kremlin had interfered
executives will appear be- The hearing is among the CEO Jack Dorsey called ticism due to questions in the 2016 race by hack-
fore Congress to discuss first of many in a GOP-con- the company’s communi- about the laptop’s origins, ing Democratic emails that
the company’s decision trolled House to be focused cations around the Post ar- including Giuliani’s involve- were subsequently leaked,
to initially block from Twit- on Biden and his family, ticle “not great.” He added ment, and because top of- and fears that Russia would
ter a New York Post article as Republicans wield the that blocking the article’s ficials in the Trump adminis- meddle again in the 2020
on Hunter Biden’s laptop in power of their new, albeit URL with “zero context” tration had already warned race were widespread
the weeks before the 2020 slim, majority. around why it was blocked that Russia was working across Washington.q