García Harfuch received 200 thousand US dollars a month from Guerreros Unidos: protected witness

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A protected witness in the investigation of the disappearance of the 43 normalistas, places the current CDMX Secretary of Citizen Security, Omar García Harfuch, among the beneficiaries of the money from the Guerreros Unidos cartel. This was announced on Thursday, January 21st, by the newspaper Reforma, which had access to the statement.

A key witness in the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa declared in the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) that Omar García Harfuch, the capital’s security secretary, “received 200 thousand dollars a month from the Guerreros Unidos cartel.”

This is what the newspaper Reforma reveals on its front page this Thursday, Jan. 21st, as they had access to the statement of the protected witness, whom they refer to as ‘Juan’. According to the information, the witness said that the cartel leaders gave bribes to military and police leaders to allow them to operate in Guerrero.

“I want to point out that he was part of the Guerreros Unidos group because he received money from us, Omar García Harfuch, this in 2014; he received 200 thousand dollars a month since he was in charge of the Federal Police in the state of Guerrero and the money he was given was to allow the trafficking of drugs, “said the witness, according to Reforma.

García Harfuch was the Regional Security Coordinator of the Federal Police (PF) in Guerrero during 2014 when the disappearance of the students from the Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa occurred.

“Omar García Harfuch, who was the head of the Federal Police in the state of Guerrero, provided information on possible operations and facilitated the transfer of heroin, money and weapons,” the witness said, according to Reforma.

The protected witness ‘Juan’ disclosed the details of the disappearance of the normalistas, between September 26 and 27, 2014 in Iguala, Guerrero. According to his statement, thirty more people disappeared that morning, belonging to a rival group of the Guerreros Unidos cartel.

The importance of ‘Juan’ as a witness to the investigation lies – according to the newspaper – in that his testimony facilitated the discovery of some remains of the normalistas, in the locations that he established . The arrest warrants against 18 soldiers were also based on his statements for their alleged participation in the events. Among them, the arrest of Captain José Martínez Crespo stands out.

The testimony indicated that García Harfuch was “well connected” with the Army because he is the grandson of the former secretary of National Defense, General Marcelino García Barragán, who served as head of the Sedena between 1964 and 1970.

General Marcelino García Barragán and grandson  Omar García Harfuch (Photo: Libertad bajo palabra)

The Guerreros Unidos cartel gave money to personnel from infantry battalions 27 and 41, to whom it paid amounts ranging from 60,000 to 120,000 pesos, according to rank. In that sense, a general received up to 5 million pesos.

“Juan” also pointed to Leonardo Octavio Vázquez Pérez, former Guerrero Public Security Secretary, Iñaki Blanco, a former Guerrero prosecutor, both during the Ángel Aguirre term as governor and according to the “protected witness” these officials used to receive 50 thousand pesos per month from the cartel Guerreros Unidos.

‘I categorically deny’ the accusations, they were made by a ‘criminal’, replies García Harfuch

Omar García Harfuch denied the accusations this Thursday morning. In a message posted on his Twitter account, he said: “ I categorically deny the malicious statements made against me by a criminal, today a ‘protected witness’, published by Reforma. My track record in fighting organized crime on different fronts speaks for itself. I do not have anything to hide”.

Harfuch did not pass a lie detector about his ties to ‘narco’: Anabel Hernández

Omar García Harfuch at the hospital after the assasionation attempt against him

On October 15, 2020, journalist Anabel Hernández published a special investigation in Aristegui Noticias titled  Omar García Harfuch: The Secret File. In the report, Hernández points out that the current capital official failed confidence tests when he belonged to the Federal Police , to which he arrived thanks to Luis Cárdenas Palomino, currently a fugitive from justice due to accusations of torture and one of the close men of the former secretary of Public Safety, Genaro García Luna, currently a prisoner in New York. 

García Hafuch  was subjected to a polygraph at least three times. In all of them, to the question: “Do you maintain commitments to organized crime?”, It registered “significant reactions of lack of veracity ”, as stated in the corresponding reports.  

On October 20, the communicator Vicente Serrano of the Sin Censura program  asked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador about García Garfuch as a possible successor to Alfonso Durazo in the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection. He alluded to the research published in Aristegui Noticias. 

The president responded that the federal government is very careful in the selection of those who help guarantee peace and tranquility in the country and that he would seek that “if Durazo decides to leave,” whoever replaces him is a person of integrity, honesty, and cleanliness who guarantees very good coordination of the security cabinet. Rosa Icela Rodríguez was finally appointed to the position.

Commission for the Truth of the Ayotzinapa case will denounce information leakage at the FGR

The Commission for Truth and Access to Justice for the Ayotzinapa case will file a criminal complaint with the Specialized Unit for Investigation of  Crimes Committed by Public Servants  of the Attorney General’s Office, as a result of information leaked to the media.

On Wednesday morning, the daily Reforma published  a fragment of the statement presented by a protected witness in the Ayotzinapa case, identified as “Juan”, the alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos criminal organization.

The information released by the media referred that the  43 disappeared normalistas  had been detained during a joint operation between elements of the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) and the police, and then handed them over to members of organized crime.

“As we have pointed out, these types of leaks seek to demerit the work carried out in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case; the credibility of the institutions that participate in it, and put at risk the truth about what happened on the night of September 26, 2014, in the city of Iguala, Guerrero, as well as the integrity of the people who are part of these investigations “, announces a statement published by the Ministry of the Interior (Segob).

Source: Aristegui Noticias

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