A Brooklyn jury on Tuesday convicted Mexico's former secretary of public security, Genaro Garcia Luna, of multiple charges related to drug trafficking, guaranteeing the nation's former top cop a minimum 20 years in prison.
"Genaro Garcia Luna, the former Secretary of Public Security in Mexico from 2006 to 2012, was convicted today by a federal jury in Brooklyn of all five counts of a superseding indictment charging him with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that includes six drug-related violations, international cocaine distribution conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine, and making false statements," the Department of Justice announced in a press release.
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace excoriated Garcia Luna's activities in the wake of his sentencing, saying he "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."
"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," he continued.
Garcia Luna served as secretary of public security from 2006-2012 and led the country's Federal Investigative Agency from 2001-2005. During the trial, former officials with the Sinaloa Cartel recounted various handoffs of bribe money they paid to Garcia Luna that increased in amount as the cartel grew stronger.
The Sinaloa Cartel has become a fixture of U.S.-Mexico relations as it controls much of the border territory and orchestrates much of the drug and human trafficking operations between the two nations. In a visit to the Arizona portion of the southern border last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy warned of the organization's growing influence and lamented that it had become the "largest employer" in the area.
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