A former top security official in the Mexican government was found guilty of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel while in office.
Former Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna was charged with conspiracy and criminal enterprise for trafficking cocaine.
Luna served as the head of Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005, then was promoted to Public Security Minister by President Felipe Calderon in 2006.
During Calderon’s presidency, Luna became one of the country’s highest profile law enforcement officials and the public face of the country’s war on drug cartels. He worked closely with intelligence officials in the US, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Luna became one of the highest-ranking Mexican officials to ever be criminally charged in the US. His trial took place at the same courthouse Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was tried at in 2019.
During his trial, a witness testified that they delivered a $3million bribe to the newly appointed security minister on behalf of the drug lord. Luna was arrested in Texas just months after Guzman’s sentencing.
A jury at Brooklyn Federal Court found Luna guilty on all five charges. They reached the decision after three days of deliberations.
Luna’s sentencing phase is scheduled to begin on June 27. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years, with a maximum of life in prison.
After Luna’s arrest, current Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador praised the decision to prosecute, saying ‘it is very important that all this is known, that it be reported on, so that it does not happen again.’
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the president Tweeted immediately after the guilty verdict was announced: ‘justice has come for the former squire of @FelipeCalderon. The crimes against our people will never be forgotten.’
US Attorney Breon Peace said Luna ‘will now 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.’
He continued: ‘It is unconscionable that the defendant betrayed his duty as Secretary of Public Security by greedily accepting millions of dollars in bribe money that was stained by the blood of Cartel wars and drug-related battles in the streets of the United States and Mexico, in exchange for protecting those murderers and traffickers he was solemnly sworn to investigate.’
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