Photo: NY Eastern District Court / Getty Images
NEW YORK.- Former Mexican police officer Iván Reyes-Arzate, alias “La Reina”, could receive 10 years in prison, according to a petition by prosecutors to Judge Brian Cogan, after the plea agreement of the former official accused of drug trafficking.
The sentence will be delivered this Wednesday, February 9 in the Eastern District Court and highlights that the petition to the judge signed by prosecutor Breon Peace has been partially sealed or “redacted”, as confidential information is known, given the possibility that Reyes-Arzate collaborates in other cases, such as that of the former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna, who faces charges of drug trafficking in the same court.
It should be noted that assistant prosecutor Ryan Harris is leading the case against García Luna, who will have a new hearing next Wednesday 16 of February, but whose trial would begin on 24 October.
The request for a sentence of five years and its justification was completely sealed, so the terms and arguments on “The Reina”, who pleaded guilty on October 19 of 2021 of the charge of international distribution of cocaine.
The past 29 December, prosecutors reported that Reyes-Arzate had also accepted the payment in parts of $792,000 dollars , which must be covered in different issues, but if there is a delay in any of its prop ages could be taken as collateral for the US Government.
Reyez-Arzate was a police officer and commander of the Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Mexican Federal Police and it was recognized that he received a bribe – presumably of up to three million dollars – in exchange for helping the Beltrán Leyva Organization .
The Department of Justice confirmed that the former Mexican official received at least $792,000 dollars in bribes, but other reports indicate that they could be million dollars.
His links with drug trafficking were discovered when US agents and Mexican authorities followed the trail of several members of Los Beltrán Leyva who were transporting cocaine from Colombia to Mexico and from there to the United States.
Most of the operations organized by the armed forces The police investigations were unsuccessful, because “The Queen” gave information from the DEA to her partners.
A photograph shared with members of the cartel triggered the alerts of the authorities in September 2016, where he is seen sitting in a van full of drugs and carrying a long-caliber weapon, according to court documents.