Albany, New
York-A reputed heroin
trafficker tied to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
offered to pay fellow inmates at the Albany County jail to assassinate two
former associates who testified against him, Sheriff Craig Apple said Thursday. Manuel Luna, 50,
of the Bronx, who is on trial in Albany facing state charges that could send
him to prison for 25 years to life, uttered the threats while in a booking cell
about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the sheriff said.
 |
| Manuel Luna |
Luna, a native of
the Dominican Republic, faces allegations he sold upward of $6 million in
heroin and cocaine to a drug customer — Geraldo "Bejo" Torres — between
2013 and 2015, when Luna was indicted along with Torres and six others in a
case brought by District Attorney David Soares' office.Torres testified in
County Court against Luna, as did Jose Beltran, known as "Moreno," who
also had been charged with being a major drug trafficker.
"Basically,
what he was trying to do was incite other inmates to participate in harming
inmates Beltran and Torres for a fee," the sheriff said, calling it a "hit."
Luna went to
trial last week before state Supreme Court Justice Richard Mott. Attorneys
offered closing arguments Thursday. Juros, who began deliberating, were to
return to court and continue deliberations Friday morning. Apple said Luna was
moved to a special housing area away from Torres and Beltran. Luna could face
charges for the alleged threat.
"We have a
very large facility and I can hide and protect inmates from exact situations
like this," Apple said. Earlier Wednesday, a former inmate, Felix Cruz-Lara,
testified at the trial that he heard Luna make threats to Torres and his family
while in the church of the jail several months ago. Cruz-Lara was in the jail
with Luna and his reputed associates on federal cocaine trafficking charges
unrelated to Luna's case.
"Mr. Luna
said, 'You know if you testify you know what's going to happen. And if I can't
get you, I'll get your family,'" Cruz-Lara testified. When asked by the
prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Jasper Mills, where Luna received his
drugs from, Cruz-Lara testified, "Supposedly he was receiving some type of
material — I don't know what kind of drug it was — from Ecuador and his sources
had something to do with the family of El Chapo Guzman."Guzman is the
reputed boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico. According to prosecutors,
Luna was a high level dealer in a ring that peddled drugs from the Mexican
cartel to West Palm Beach, Fla., to Corona, Queens, and eventually the Buffalo
area.
Cruz-Lara
testified that four months ago he was in the church of the jail when he heard
Luna tell another co-defendant, Mayobanex "Company" Rodriquez, that
drugs arrived from Ecuador hidden in fiberglass plantains that had been shipped
with real plantains.
Prosecutors began
their case after the July 2013 arrest of Miguel Hermenegildo on the Thruway in
Bethlehem. Hermenegildo had a kilo of heroin while heading to Buffalo to move
drugs. Sam Braverman, the attorney for Luna, said Cruz-Lara was not credible
and told outright lies.
"There isn't
a part of that guy that isn't the definition of the unreliable person," the
attorney said.
In Sinaloa these guys are untouchable and no bad shit can be said about them less you and your family brothers, sisters, parents turn up dead buried in a mass grave in Durango or elsewhere! The simple act of even talking about them wrong much more if you testify against them in court is a guaranteed death sentence for you and yours! This shows that these guys do harm innocents- your family! Fuck he that buys into that narco corrido crap! Like I, had said before, this is why Chapo is still alive in Juarez!
ReplyDeleteso why hasnt anyone tried to kill Vicente the biggest snitch?
Delete@10:36 Why would Vicente or his family get killed by CDS?
DeleteVicente was NOT snitching on activities or capos within CDS. He was snitching on the names and locations of the enemies of CDS to the U.S. DEA and or CIA in return for his cartel to be allowed to continue crossing drugs into the U.S. and for a lighter jail sentence.
Prior to around the year 2006 and the cartel wars it was said that his father Mayo used to be second in command of CDJ at one point in time hence him as well as his son Vicente knew where major players -capos of at least that cartel if not more lived and their areas of operation. He probably snitched on BLO and other cartels as well other than the CDS in return for yhe stuff I mentioned.
If you have been keeping up with narco news and Vicente you wpuld know this is true.
'Vicente' pled "guilty",
Deletewho or what did he snitch about, Mister Naked Hysteria?
Like I, said. Vicente gave away the known wheareabouts of CDS enemies. Pleading guilty and getting only perhaps 15 years of prison sentence does not make sense. He definetely got a plea deal with the U.S. govenment.
DeleteThere isn't one part of a defense attorney that knows the difference between a lie and the truth. As an expert liar and defender of snivelling punk ass bitches scared of doing 25 to life in prison he should know what an unreliable person is, he sees one everyday when he looks at himself in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteLuna must have just realized that he might have to DL lots of time in a real prison and not the outhouses that they have in the Dominican Republic. Pendejo
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ReplyDeleteBetter yet.....ship his sorry ass to the Philppines.
ReplyDeleteLinked to el chapo? Really? How? Did they subpoena his phone records, or perhaps they had meetings, does chapo even know this guy exists? Come on, what a headline.
ReplyDeleteat least someone knows what they're talking about , you think luna would be in the united states if he was linked to el chapo . he wouldn't be here , he would've been somewhere better , come on these ADA do not know what they are talking about . JASPER MILLS just wanted to beat this case and make up LIES just to be on a higher level . i bet FELIX CRUZ LARA was PAID to LIE . but we gonna leave this one to god .THE LAW LIES MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD .
DeleteOMG I said the same thing , this case is bogus , how do you convict someone when everyone is this case just making up lies including jasper mills lying a** mother fu*ker
DeleteYou make me remember Tupac, he was blamed for everything bad that happened anywhere until they murdered him, same thing with la chapa, Hit'en Up clearly reflects the demonization of la chapa by others...
ReplyDeleteBUNCH OF LIES. ADA DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT
ReplyDelete