In his morning press conference, the President said the defense of the prisoner, who was found guilty of five drug trafficking crimes, tried to prevent a Mexican lawsuit to return 600 million dollars that García Luna and his foreign associates embezzled from the treasury and laundered in Miami.

He celebrated the ruling because it will allow the return of that amount of money to Mexico to be analyzed.

According to the President, the Florida court dismissed the appeal by García Luna’s lawyers against our corruption complaint.

Yesterday it was dismissed, the trial continues, for that crime. We are talking about 600 million dollars, we are talking about apartments and other real estate and luxury properties, he explained.

It was alleged (García Luna’s lawyers) that the court should not intervene, that it was not their place, but it was.

López Obrador took advantage of the García Luna issue to reiterate that during his time as an official and main partner of former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), the war against a part of drug trafficking was launched to benefit the Sinaloa cartel and the Government became a narco-state.

Violence grew disproportionately and he admitted that it has been very difficult to lower the crime rates fostered by Calderón and García Luna. In response to a question from journalists, he answered that his administration has lowered the homicide rate by 17 percent, but it is still high.

He said that tomorrow the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Pablo Gómez, will be present at the conference at the National Palace to give more details on the case.

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