Who is Sergio Villarreal Barragán “El Grande”, one of the witnesses against García Luna

México CITY (apro).– Federal Judge Brian Cogan, in charge of the trial against the former Secretary of Public Security of México, Genaro García Luna, endorsed some of the witnesses that the United States Department of Justice will present.

Among the names listed, Sergio Villarreal Barragán “El Grande” stands out, a bloodthirsty drug trafficker who was a key part of the criminal cell headed by the Beltrán Leyva brothers.

“El Grande” was deported to the United States in 2012 after serving as a protected witness for the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, who had Genaro García Luna as Secretary of Public Security.

He revealed to the PGR the way in which the drug trafficking business operated and the way in which he assassinated those he considered “traitors”.

He even lent himself to defame Process and the reporter Ricardo Ravelo through Televisa, who broadcast statements by “El Grande” on his stellar news program in which he claimed to have paid $50,000 to the weekly so that nothing against him would be published in 2007.

“The slander was easily exposed, since from 2005 to date Process He has not remained silent around the raids of the capo”, Ricardo Ravelo himself wrote on Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

his rise

That same report narrates the criminal career of Sergio Villarreal Barragán “El Grande”, who began as a car thief in Torreón, Coahuila.

Later he was a policeman in that city and was related to Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, but finally joined the cell of the Cartel de Sinaloa headed by Arturo and Alfredo Beltrán Leyva. She also had relationships with Édgar Valdez Villarreal “La Barbie”.

Its area of ​​influence was the Comarca Lagunera, but its center of operations remained in Torreón.

Mario, a protected witness of the PGR who was part of the security team of “El Grande”, narrated that his employer was protected by the Federal Police, who warned him in advance of the operations against him.

He also assured that the drug trafficker met in luxurious bars or restaurants with the prosecutors who were investigating him to negotiate the bribes.

Protected witness of the PGR

His meteoric career in drug trafficking fell apart when the brothers Beltrán Leyva and Joaquín Guzmán Loera “El Chapo” broke relations. “El Grande” began to be persecuted by the Army and the Navy, for which he had to take refuge in Morelos and then in Puebla, where he was arrested on September 12, 2010.

It was then that he became a protected witness for the PGR, to which he narrated the way in which he trafficked cocaine and how he had those he considered “traitors” killed or executed.

In his testimony, for example, he narrated that on the orders of Arturo Beltrán he tortured and murdered Mario Pineda Villa “El MP”.

“I raised that pig myself. He thought he was very bloodthirsty and he was not to my liking. I tied him up and kicked him until he lost consciousness. I told him: ‘You see, fucking pig, isn’t that a bastard?’; Later I ordered him to be put in a vehicle and taken along the old highway that leads to Cuernavaca. At the height of the town of Huitzilac, Morelos, they lowered him and I unloaded a blast from the horn of a goat against him while he was tied up.

“Later, Arturo ordered me to execute everyone who was related to the MP or simply whoever his friend was, even if it had nothing to do with the drug business. This is how they proceeded in those days, raising more or less 90 people, who were beaten and executed.”

Before being extradited to the United States, Villarreal left testimonies related to the military currently accused of serving the cell of the Beltrán Leyva brothers, including Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, Ricardo Escorcia Vargas, Roberto Dawe González and Lieutenant Colonel Silvio Hernández.

He explained that these military high commands were part of a cell protection network headed by Arturo Beltrán Leyva and that in exchange for this they were paid millions in dollars.