Mexico’s ex-public security chief sentenced to 38-plus years in US for taking cartel bribes
BY LARRY NEUMEISTER AND CEDAR ATTANASIO
Updated 6:53 AM GMT+5, October 17, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — The man once heralded as the architect of Mexico’s war on drug cartels was sentenced to more than 38 years in a U.S. prison on Wednesday for taking massive bribes to aid drug traffickers.
Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former secretary of public security, was convicted by a New York jury in 2023 of taking millions of dollars in bribes to protect the violent Sinaloa cartel that he was supposedly combating. He is the highest-level Mexican government official to be convicted in the United States.
At his sentencing hearing before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday, García Luna continued to maintain his innocence and said the case against him was based on false information from criminals and the Mexican government.
“I have a firm respect for the law,” he said in Spanish. “I have not committed these crimes.”
García Luna, 56, led Mexico’s federal police before he served in a cabinet-level position as the top security official from 2006 to 2012 under then-President Felipe Calderón. At the time, García Luna was hailed as an ally by the U.S. in its fight on drug trafficking.
But U.S. prosecutors said that in return for millions of dollars, he provided intelligence about investigations against the cartel, information about rival gangs and the safe passage of massive quantities of drugs.
After the sentencing, Calderón said via the social platform X that he respects the court’s decision but he never had “verifiable evidence” of García Luna’s criminal activities. Calderón said taking on the cartels “was one of the most difficult decisions of my life. But I would do it again, because it is the right thing to do.”
Earlier outside the courthouse, a group of about 15 protesters celebrated the verdict. Some held a banner that said, in Spanish, “Calderon did know,” while others brandished signs denouncing his political party.
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence. García Luna’s lawyers had argued that he should get no more than 20 years.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said he wasn’t moved by past accolades that García Luna received for his work in the war on drugs.
“That was your cover,” Cogan 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.’”
Besides the sentence of 38 years and four months, the judge imposed a $2 million fine.
During the trial, photos were shown of García Luna shaking hands with former President Barack Obama and speaking with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John McCain.