Mexico’s former security chief gets 38 years in prison in US for taking bribes from cartels

The man once heralded as the architect of Mexico’s war against drug cartels has been sentenced to more than 38 years in prison in the US for taking huge bribes to help drug traffickers.

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s former public security minister, was convicted by a New York jury in 2023 of taking millions of dollars in bribes to protect the violent Sinaloa cartel he supposedly fought.

He is the highest-ranking Mexican government official to be convicted in the US.

During his sentencing hearing before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Garcia Luna maintained his innocence, saying the case against him was based on false information from criminals and the Mexican government.

“I have great respect for the law,” he said in Spanish. “I did not commit these crimes.”

Garcia Luna, 56, led Mexico’s federal police before serving in a cabinet-level position as the top security official under then-President Felipe Calderon from 2006 to 2012.

At the time, Garcia Luna was hailed by the US as an ally in its fight against drug trafficking.

But U.S. prosecutors said that in exchange for millions of dollars, he provided intelligence on investigations against the cartel, information on rival gangs and the safe passage of vast quantities of drugs.

After the sentencing, Mr. Calderon said on X, formerly Twitter, that he respected the court’s decision but that he never had “verifiable evidence” of Garcia Luna’s criminal activities.

Mr Calderon said tackling the cartels was “one of the most difficult decisions of my life. But I would do it again because it’s the right thing to do.”

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said he was not moved by previous awards Garcia Luna received for his work in the war on drugs.

“That was your cover,” the judge said before imposing the sentence.

“You are guilty of these crimes, sir. You can’t parade these words and say, ‘I’m police officer of the year’.”

Along with the sentence of 38 years and four months, the judge imposed a fine of two million dollars.

During the trial, photos were shown of Garcia Luna shaking hands with former US President Barack Obama and speaking with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Senator John McCain.

But prosecutors said Garcia Luna secretly advanced a drug trafficking conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of thousands of U.S. and Mexican citizens.

He ensured drug traffickers received advance notice of raids and sabotaged legitimate police operations aimed at arresting cartel leaders, they said.

Drug traffickers were able to move more than a million pounds of cocaine through Mexico to the U.S. by planes, trains, trucks and submarines while Garcia Luna held his post, prosecutors said.

During the trial of former Sinaloa queen Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in the same court in 2018, a former cartel member testified that he personally delivered at least $6 million in payouts to Garcia Luna and that cartel members agreed to pool up to $50 million pay for his protection.

‘He made the cartel possible. He protected the cartel. He was the cartel,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy told the judge Wednesday.

Garcia Luna enabled a corrupt system that allowed violent cartels to thrive and distribute drugs that killed masses of people, she added.

“It may not have been the defendant who pulled the trigger, but he has blood on his hands,” Komatireddy said.

Garcia Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, said the defense planned to appeal the sentence.