Former Mexican ‘drug czar’ sentenced to 38 years in US prison

The news

A US court has sentenced Mexico’s former head of public security to 38 years in prison for taking bribes from the very drug cartels his office wanted to target.

Genaro García Luna was originally arrested in 2019 and ultimately found guilty last year of, among other things, providing intelligence to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel in exchange for huge sums of money.

“He helped the cartel, he protected the cartel, he was the cartel,” the lead prosecutor said. “Death is in your hands.”

His is one of a number of high-profile drug trafficking cases in Mexico playing out in US courts: García Luna was convicted by the same judge as infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada – arrested this summer – this week in the same dock.