(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s former top security chief was sentenced to more than 38 years behind bars in the US for secretly providing protection to kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s brutal Sinaloa cartel while he was supposed to be leading the nation’s war on drugs.
Genaro Garcia Luna, 56, was found guilty by a federal jury in New York last year of six drug-related crimes and taking millions of dollars in bribes from the cartel. He is one of the highest-ranking Mexican officials to be convicted of corruption by a US court. Prosecutors said he enabled drug traffickers to transport more than one million kilos of cocaine into the US.
“The offense here is so overwhelming,” US District Judge Brian Cogan said while handing down the sentence Wednesday. “Aside from your pleasant demeanor and your articulateness, you have the same kind of thuggishness as El Chapo,” Cogan said. “It just does manifests itself in a different way.”
President Calderon
Garcia Luna served as Mexico’s Minister of Public Security from 2006 to 2012 under former President Felipe Calderon and was tasked with vanquishing drug kingpins. Before that, he led Mexico’s version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was arrested by US authorities in Dallas in 2019, and has been held in a federal lockup in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors argued Garcia Luna deserved a life sentence for his role in operating a criminal enterprise for years. He helped cartel members import and distribute massive quantities of drugs into the US and even provided them with tips and equipment to evade detection from authorities, the US government said.
During a four-week trial that ended in February 2023, at least six former narco-traffickers detailed their illicit relationship with Garcia Luna.
$2 Million Bribe
Even after Garcia Luna was convicted, he tried unsuccessfully to offer a $2 million bribe to fellow inmates to create false evidence to win a new trial, according to prosecutors in the office of Brooklyn US Attorney Breon Peace.
Cogan is the same judge who sentenced “El Chapo” to life in prison, plus 30 years, in 2019 after the drug kingpin was convicted of leading the Sinaloa cartel. Cogan also is set to preside over the case against alleged Sinaloa co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, who was brought to the US in September to face international drug charges.
Garcia Luna has maintained his innocence. In September, he accused former Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his associates of having ties to the cartel. Lopez Obrador denied the claims and demanded Garcia Luna present evidence to support them.
At the sentencing hearing, defense lawyer Cesar de Castro noted that Manuel Noriega, Panama’s former dictator, wasn’t given a life prison term after being convicted of drug charges in the US.
Commendations, Awards
De Castro cited the many commendations and awards Garcia Luna received during his long career, including from the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Drug Enforcement Agency and law enforcement groups from around the world.
Garcia Luna begged Cogan for leniency, insisting, “I have not committed any of these crimes” he said, saying he was a victim of “the false information provided by the Mexican government and their criminals.”
The former law man said he had “firm respect for the law,” concluding his remarks by asking Cogan to “allow me to return to my family as soon as possible and re-incorporate myself into the society I belong to.”
Prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy countered that by his actions, Garcia Luna allowed Sinaloa Cartel to thrive.
‘Not El Chapo’
“He is not El Chapo, he is worse,” she said.
“There were corrupt officials at every level from the bottom to the top,” she said. “It might not be the defendant who pulled the trigger but he has blood on his hands.”
After de Castro objected to holding the defendant responsible for those who died from drugs the cartel brought into the US, the judge interrupted him, calling García Luna “a major facilitator” for drug trafficking.
Cogan acknowledged the 58 months García Luna has spent in the Brooklyn federal jail where he’s been held, as well as the tutoring and other aid he provided to fellow inmates. But the judge said he’s very troubled by evidence showing the defendant tried to bribe some inmates. Cogan said he could only conclude that Garcia Luna led a “double life,” where his good works were a “smokescreen to maintain this image of cleanliness that was not deserved.”
Instead of a life sentence, Cogan ordered Garcia Luna to serve 460 months. The judge also imposed a $2 million fine.
As the hearing ended, García Luna, who was wearing a dark suit and white shirt, blew kisses to his family in court and gestured with his arms crossed over his chest like he was sending them a hug.
The case is US v. Garcia Luna, 19-cr-576, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
(Updates with arguments by defense lawyer, prosecutor)
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