Mexico’s ex-chief of public security is convicted in U.S. drug case
A former Mexican Cabinet member was convicted in the U.S. on Tuesday of taking massive bribes to protect the drug cartels that he was tasked with combating.
Under tight security, an anonymous New York federal jury deliberated three days before reaching a verdict in the drug-trafficking case against former Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna.
He is the highest-ranking current or former Mexican official ever to be tried in the United States.
García Luna headed Mexico’s federal police and then was its top publicsafety official from 2006 to 2012. His lawyers said the charges were based on lies from criminals who wanted to punish his drug-fighting efforts and to get sentencing breaks for themselves by helping prosecutors.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has railed throughout the trial against ex-President Felipe Calderón’s administration for, at a minimum, putting García Luna in charge of Mexico’s security. López Obrador spokesperson Jesús Ramírez tweeted after the verdict that “justice has come” and that “the crimes committed against our people will never be forgotten.”
García Luna’s work also introduced him to highlevel American politicians and other officials, who considered him a key cartel-fighting partner as Washington embarked on a $1.6 billion push to help Mexican law enforcement and stem the flow of drugs.
The Americans weren’t accused of wrongdoing.
A roster of ex-smugglers and former Mexican officials testified that García Luna took millions of dollars in cartel cash, met with major traffickers and kept law enforcement at bay.
He was “the best investment they had,” said Sergio “El Grande” Villarreal Barragan, a former federal police officer who worked for cartels on the side and later as his main job.
He and other witnesses said that on García Luna’s watch, police tipped off traffickers about upcoming raids, ensured that cocaine could pass freely through the country, colluded with cartels to raid rivals, and did other favors.
García Luna, 54, didn’t testify, but his wife took the stand in an apparent effort to portray their assets in Mexico as legitimately acquired. The couple moved to Miami in 2012 when the Mexican administration changed and he became a consultant on security issues.
García Luna’s lawyer, César de Castro, emphasized that prosecutors’ case relied on testimony from admitted lawbreakers, without recordings, messages or a documented money trail to corroborate them.
“Nothing backs up what these killers, torturers, fraudsters, and epic narcotics traffickers claimed about Genaro García Luna,” de Castro said in his closing argument.
García Luna faces 20 years to life in prison. His sentencing is set for June 27.
The trial was peppered with glimpses of such narco-extravagances as a private zoo with a lion, a hippo, white tigers and more. Jurors heard about tons of cocaine moving through Latin America in shipping containers, go-fast boats, private jets, planes, trains and even submarines.
And there were horrific reminders of the extraordinary violence those drugs fueled.
Witnesses described cartel killings and kidnappings, allegedly including an abduction of García Luna himself. There was testimony about police officers being slaughtered and drug-world rivals being dismembered, skinned and dangled from bridges as cartel factions fought each other while buying police protection.
The Mexican government has also filed a civil suit against García Luna and his alleged associates and businesses in Florida, seeking to recover $700 million that Mexico claims he garnered through corruption.