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Mexico‘s ex-top security official has been found guilty of using his power and influence to protect the notorious drug cartels he was tasked with dismantling.
Genaro Garcia Luna, once dubbed his nation’s ‘J. Edgar Hoover’, was the head of Mexico’s federal police at the time the government waged war on organized crime.
But the security chief was secretly on the payroll of infamous cartel kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo‘ Guzman, who rewarded him with millions in exchange for propping up his expansive criminal empire.
Garcia Luna, 54, was found guilty Tuesday of a litany of charges in the same Brooklyn courthouse which sentenced El Chapo in 2019, and he now faces the same life sentence handed to his former boss four years ago.
Genaro Garcia Luna, once dubbed his nation’s ‘J. Edgar Hoover’, has been found guilty in a New York federal court
Garcia Luna was on the payroll of notorious crime boss El Chapo, pictured, who rewarded him with millions in exchange for protection
During his time in power, Garlia Luna was the right-hand man to Mexican President Calderon, with the duo publicly vowing to crack down on organized crime during Calderon’s six years in office from 2006 to 2012.
Allegations about the former security chief had reportedly been swirling long before his arrest in the United States in December 2019.
And his double life as a cartel orchestrator was finally uncovered following a contentious, month-long trial in New York, where prosecutors called testimony from a half dozen former narcotics deputies.
Nine former cartel members also took the stand to testify against the former government heavyweight, revealing that he was secretly making a fortune off the organized crime network he had been publicly working against.
In particular, witnesses testified that he was taking millions in bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel, the organization fronted by infamous crime boss El Chapo.
One former federal police officer, who went on to work for the cartel, testified that Garcia Luna was paid as much as $1.5 million a month to use his influence.
This increased further as he climbed the ladder of power, with the same officer, Sergio Villarreal Barragan, claiming Garcia Luna and his associates were paid up to $230 million after he was promoted to Mexico’s security chief.
His influence allowed El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel to rapidly expand their operations across Mexico.
The crime boss was able to utilize his vast resources, facilitated by Garcia Luna, to evade capture by US and Mexican authorities for decades. He is currently serving a life sentence in ADX Florence, a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
The former cartel members at the trial, who testified against Garcia Luna as cooperating witnesses, described in detail the system he used to keep the cartels well protected for years so he could profit off their payrolls himself.
Using his power and influence, Garcia Luna covertly placed Sinaloa members on the Mexican federal police rolls, while also providing them with official uniforms, badges and vehicles.
On one occasion detailed in court by Barragan, Garcia Luna helped El Chapo intercept a rival gang’s shipment of cocaine.
After arriving at a warehouse with the two-ton stockpile of cocaine, drug bosses agreed to divide the profits evenly, while the top Mexican government official walked away with around $16 million in cash in cardboard boxes.
‘There were so many boxes they didn’t fit in their SUV,’ Barragan told the court – leading the cartel to lend Garcia Luna a car to drive off with the fortune.
Garcia Luna, 54, ran Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005, before serving as head of public security for Calderon from 2006 to 2012
Garcia Luna was convicted Tuesday in the same Brookyln courthouse that sentenced El Chapo in 2019. He is pictured here in a court artists rendition February 14, 2023
The secret to the seemingly untouchable drug trade inside Mexico was also revealed in the trial, as the security boss regularly tipped off cartel leaders to imminent raids by US authorities.
El Chapo’s rise to worldwide infamy as a giant of organized crime was bolstered by his close ties to Luna Garcia, who had police arrest rival traffickers while also enlisting officers to help the Sinaloa cartel in their operations.
Another former crime boss, Jesus ‘El Rey’ Zambada, the head of Sinaloa’s operations in Mexico City’s airport, testified that he routinely transported money to the security chief.
He detailed how in late 2006, he stuffed at least $5 million into duffel bags and sent them to Garcia Luna, who collected them in a ritzy Mexico City restaurant.
In exchange for the payoff, Zambada said, Garcia Luna used his role to shield his brother, a cartel boss, and his associates from law enforcement.
Facilitated through Garcia Luna’s reign of terror, Zambada said the cartel was able to transport approximately 100 tons of cocaine to the US every month.
The cartel insider said the operation yielded between $2.8 and $3 billion a year in profits.
Jurors also learned that thanks to his reputation as a cartel-fighting politician, Garcia Luna met with numerous high-level US government officials, who provided with him with $1.6 billion to bolster Mexican law enforcement and stem the flow of drugs across the border.
Among those who reportedly met with Garcia Luna while he claimed to cooperate with the US was former attorney general Eric Holder and onetime secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Juaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is currently serving a life sentence in ADX Florence, a maximum security prison in Colorado
Garcia Luna faces a minimum of 20 years in prison after being convicted of five charges, including engaging in a continuous criminal enterprise
Garcia Luna’s guilty verdict deals a body blow to the cartel network in both Mexico and the US, uncovering how the man once charged with rooting out the illegal drugs trade was working with criminals for years.
Assistant US Attorney Saritha Komatireddy told jurors in her closing argument: ‘He used his official position to make millions of dollars for himself from the people he was supposed to prosecute.’
Despite heading up Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI before entering the presidential cabinet, Garcia Luna was long suspected by many in his nation of having close ties to cartels during his heyday.
Following his arrest in 2019, he became the highest-ranking Mexican official to ever face trial in the US on drug-trafficking charges.
He faces the possibility of a life sentence for his role in quietly protecting drug kingpin El Chapo, who was convicted in the same Brooklyn, New York courthouse in 2019.
Garcia Luna, 54, ran Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005, before serving as head of public security for Calderon from 2006 to 2012.
Following his conviction, he faces a minimum of 20 years in prison after being convicted of five charges, including engaging in a continuous criminal enterprise.
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