Former Mexican security chief sentenced to 38 years in U.S. prison for aiding drug cartels

Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former top security official, was sentenced to over 38 years in a U.S. prison on Wednesday for assisting drug cartels he was sworn to dismantle. García Luna, 56, was convicted in a high-profile trial in New York last year for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel to allow the smuggling of vast quantities of cocaine.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan sentenced García Luna, who served as Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security from 2006 to 2012 under President Felipe Calderón, to 460 months in prison and imposed a $2 million fine during a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.

“Today’s sentencing of Genaro García Luna is a critical step in upholding justice and the rule of law,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement following the sentencing. “His betrayal of the public trust and the people he was sworn to protect resulted in more than one million kilograms of lethal narcotics imported into our communities and unleashed untold violence here and in Mexico,” Peace added.

García Luna’s conviction followed a month-long trial that exposed deep corruption within Mexico’s security apparatus, highlighting his role as the highest-ranking Mexican government figure ever to stand trial in the United States. His case also shed light on the immense power of the Sinaloa Cartel, led at the time by notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. penitentiary.

Prosecutors portrayed García Luna as a “partner in crime” to the Sinaloa Cartel, claiming he accepted large sums of money to ensure safe passage for narcotics and even targeted rival drug cartels. His cooperation with traffickers extended from 2001 to 2012, when he held key security positions in the Mexican government, including chief of the country’s Federal Investigation Agency and later head of public security, overseeing the federal police and anti-drug operations.

Instead of fighting cartel activities, García Luna allegedly provided critical intelligence to traffickers, warning them of law enforcement efforts and securing positions of power for other corrupt officials. During the trial, nine of the 26 witnesses testifying against García Luna were accused drug traffickers who cooperated with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of leniency in their own cases. Among these witnesses were former high-level cartel members, including Jesús “Rey” Zambada, Sergio Villarreal Barragán, and Óscar “Lobo” Valencia, who described paying millions to García Luna in exchange for protection.

García Luna, once hailed as a “supercop,” left Mexico for the United States in 2012 after serving in President Calderón’s administration, which had launched a crackdown on drug cartels. He was arrested in Texas in December 2019 and convicted of multiple charges, including operating a criminal enterprise and conspiring to import and distribute cocaine.