You’re staying in jail Virus risk not enough to free Mex. top cop: B’klyn judge
Mexico’s former top cop isn’t breathing easy as he awaits trial on bribery charges in Brooklyn’s federal lockup.
The coronavirus menace — combined with an unspecified respiratory illness five years ago — was not enough to get Genaro Garcia Luna sprung from the Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits trial on federal charges of taking millions in bribes from the violent Sinaloa cartel while he held public office.
Garcia Luna, 51 — Mexico’s former secretary of public security — applied for emergency release from the jail, where an inmate and four Bureau of Prisons staffers have already tested positive for coronavirus.
But Brooklyn Federal Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes ruled Tuesday that Garcia Luna was not at high enough risk to succumb to the virus if he gets it — but that he is at high risk of fleeing the country if he’s freed.
“I’m not sure, given the seriousness of the charges and the potential should he be found guilty for a significant sentence, that he could resist the urge to flee,” Reyes said during a teleconferenced bail hearing.
There are 537 “medically vulnerable” detainees at the Brooklyn lockup, its warden says. Garcia Luna is not on that list.
Numerous inmates with a history of respiratory illness are citing coronavirus in bids for freedom. Lawyers filed a class-action petition Friday demanding the release of all those vulnerable inmates from the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Garcia Luna’s lawyer argued federal prosecutors are downplaying the risk of a coronavirus outbreak at the Sunset Park jail.
“They are extraordinarily minimizing the danger that COVID-19 poses, ... including Mr. Garcia Luna,” said defense lawyer Cesar De Castro. “The wave is probably coming.”
A separate bail application by Garcia Luna was rejected in late February.
Garcia Luna — whose public office from 2006 to 2012 involved overseeing drug enforcement in Mexico — is charged with allowing the Sinaloa cartel, under leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, to operate with impunity in exchange for cash.
He allegedly received a one-time cash bribe — between $3 million and $5 million — from cartel leader Rey Zambada in the 2000s at a restaurant.
Prosecutors say they have more witnesses ready to testify that they bribed Garcia Luna while he was serving in public office. Garcia Luna faces up to life imprisonment if convicted in Brooklyn Federal Court.