Former top Mexican official convicted of taking millions in bribes from cartel
After a month-long trial that began in January, a jury found García Luna guilty on all five counts in an indictment that included his alleged involvement in an ongoing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution and drug-related conspiracies. He faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for June 27.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said in closing statements that García Luna was “a smart, ambitious, powerful and self-serving politician” who accepted millions of dollars “from the very people he was supposed to prosecute.”
García Luna, 54, took bribe money “in briefcases, in duffel bags, in boxes full of cash,” Komatireddy said. He also hand-delivered cocaine for the organization, tipped them off to anticipated law enforcement actions, and helped arrest and kill members of rival cartels.
García Luna was a point of contact for officials in the U.S. who dealt with Mexico in efforts to thwart narcotics trafficking. He ran the Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005 and was the country’s secretary of public security from 2006 to 2012.
During the trial, 25 witnesses were called by the prosecution — including several high-level members of the Sinaloa organization, whose leader was tried and convicted in the same U.S. courthouse in 2019.
“These witnesses were close to the top,” Komatireddy said to jurors. “High up enough to know about the cartel’s most sensitive and important government relationships, including its relationship with the defendant.”
García Luna’s attorney, Cesar de Castro, said the verdict was a disappointment and said the ex-official “will continue to do everything he can to clear his good name.” De Castro told jurors the prosecution’s case relied entirely on the testimony of criminals. “Nothing backs up what these killers, torturers, fraudsters, and epic narcotics traffickers claimed about Genaro García Luna,” he said during closing arguments.
De Castro said the prosecution’s witnesses were motivated by the promise of leniency in their own legal matters and the possibility of starting new lives in the U.S. with the government’s assistance.
In drug cases, prosecutors frequently rely on the testimony of cooperating witnesses who are also involved in the criminal activity.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement that García Luna will “live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels.”
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar tweeted that the verdict “demonstrates how our relentless pursuit for justice is stronger than the [transnational criminal organizations’] attempts to wrest good governance away from the people who deserve it.”
The conviction comes as a vast amount of Mexican territory is controlled by organized crime groups that fight each other for influence. Homicides have hovered over 30,000 per year since 2019, during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s tenure, according to Mexico’s crime statistics.
A spokesman for López Obrador called García Luna a “former squire” of former president Felipe Calderón in a tweet Tuesday after the verdict.
While the trial was largely focused on García Luna’s ties to violent traffickers, it is clear from recent history that U.S. counternarcotics strategy in Mexico has been marred by failure. In recent years, the Sinaloa cartel has developed the capacity to manufacture and traffic millions of doses of fentanyl every year.
López Obrador has been a frequent critic of U.S. attempts to curb drug trafficking and García Luna’s conviction will for some cast doubt on the effectiveness of previous U.S. efforts. Last month, López Obrador said in a news conference that links between García Luna and U.S. authorities suggested that U.S. intelligence agencies “need a shake up, a review.”
U.S. officials have said much of the blame rests with Mexico for not being more aggressive to stem the flow of drugs.
García Luna’s conviction follows the controversial U.S. case against Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s former defense minister. Cienfuegos was arrested in 2020 in Los Angeles on bribery and drug trafficking charges, but after pressure from López Obrador, he was released and returned to Mexico, where he lives as a free man.
Sieff reported from Mexico City.
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