Genaro Garcia Luna Sentenced to 38 Years in US for Protecting Sinaloa Cartel Traffickers

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's Former Top Law Enforcement Figure Sentenced to 38 Years in US on Drug Trafficking & Bribery Charges.

“After years of destructive narcotrafficking and deceit, Garcia Luna will spend nearly 40 years where he belongs: federal prison.”

“Today’s sentencing of Genaro Garcia Luna is a critical step in upholding justice and the rule of law. 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. This sentence sends a strong message that no one, regardless of their position or influence, is above the law.” Stated United States Attorney Peace.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram stated that “Garcia Luna accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel to allow millions of kilograms of cocaine to flood the streets of the United States. Instead of protecting the citizens of Mexico, Garcia Luna was protecting drug cartels.”

“Today’s sentencing sends a powerful message that no one is above the law,” said HSI Executive Associate Director Katrina W. Berger. “HSI continues its partnered commitment to disrupting and dismantling the criminal networks responsible for bringing deadly narcotics into the U.S.”

Bribed by the Sinaloa Cartel

From 2006 to 2012, Genaro Garcia Luna was Mexico’s top law enforcement official, serving as Secretary of Public Security and, in that capacity, controlled Mexico’s Federal Police Force. Previously, from 2001 to 2005, the defendant was the head of Mexico’s Federal Investigative Agency (AFI).

Luna used his official positions to assist the violent Sinaloa Cartel (the Cartel) in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.

Garcia Luna’s conduct included facilitating safe passage of the Cartel’s drug shipments, providing sensitive law enforcement information about investigations into the Cartel and helping the Cartel attack rival drug cartels, thereby facilitating the importation of multi‑ton quantities of cocaine and other drugs into the United States.

In exchange for bribes, the defendant’s Federal Police Force acted as bodyguards and escorts for the Cartel, allowing Cartel members to wear police uniforms and badges and helping to unload shipments of cocaine from planes at Mexico City’s airport, then delivering the cocaine to the Cartel. The defendant was paid in U.S. currency, stuffed variously in suitcases, briefcases and duffel bags. The bribe amounts increased over the years as the Sinaloa Cartel grew in size and power through the assistance of the defendant.

Trial of Mexico's Former Top Cop

Following a four-week trial in February 2023, Garcia Luna was convicted by a jury of Engaging in a Continuing Criminal Enterprise, International Cocaine Distribution Conspiracy, Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Cocaine, Conspiracy to Import Cocaine and Making False Statements.

The trial consisted primarily of convicted turned cooperating drug traffickers who testified to their bribing of, delivering money and negotiating with Luna. Former members, including "El Rey," the brother of recently arrested Sinaloa leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

"El Mayo" is also facing Judge Cogan in the same courtroom and his next hearing is later this week after being rescheduled. Possibly in relation to the sentencing date of Garcia Luna, which had been postponed several times since his conviction over a year and a half ago.

Cartel members testified that bribe money was handed off to Luna in a variety of locations, including at a “safe house” located in Mexico City where large amounts of cash were hidden in a false wall, at a car wash in Guadalajara and at a French restaurant in Mexico City across the street from the US Embassy.

In exchange for the millions of dollars in bribes, the Federal Police Force leaked sensitive information that enabled the cartel to evade detection by law enforcement or use the information in attacks on rival traffickers. In 2012, with the end of Felipe Calderon's presidency, Luna retired and worked in the private sector in the US.

After moving to the United States in 2012, Garcia Luna submitted an application for naturalization in 2018, in which he lied about his past criminal conduct on behalf of the Cartel in an attempt to become a US citizen which resulted in his being charged and convicted of making that false statement.

He was arrested in 2019 while living in Miami, Florida.

His defense attempted to show the jury numerous awards, accolades and even letters from former US Presidents and Political figures. As well as the former Director of the FBI offered during his application for US citizenship.

Last Minute Plea for Clemency

Prosecutors requested a life sentence while the defense sought the minimum of 20 years in prison. The CCE charge alone carries a minimum of 20 years in prison.

The day before, the Luna himself sent a letter to the Judge Brian Cogan asking for clemency, insisting that he never had any ties to drug trafficking and that he is “a good man.”

In his letter he spoke of how he was raised in a family with a “strong sense of ethics” and “being good people” with “love for our country.” He said that his family was “witness to my difficult profession” and the “superhuman efforts to fight crime and violence that my country is experiencing.”

He blames Mexico’s current government for its legal proceedings, writing that “my country is undergoing great upheaval. By order of the current president of Mexico, the country’s judiciary has just been dismantled… his quest to imprison those we fight, his political allies linked to drug trafficking, Mexico is entering a very dangerous stage, moving away from democracy and questioning individual freedoms; a pause has just been decreed – suspension of official relations between the US and Mexico, threatening and putting at risk the coordinated work between the US and Mexico,” he states.

With all this, he concludes by asking the judge to consider all these factors surrounding this trial when issuing the sentence, "among others the false information provided by the current Mexican government and the criminal witnesses, their complicity against me and my responsibility in the frontal fight against drug trafficking where powerful political interests also clash."

He recalled that “I am the Mexican with the most recognitions and decorations” in several countries including the United States “for the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking,” and stressed that he participated in the highest levels of collaboration in intelligence and security with the United States. He insisted that he never profited from his positions, and that “there is no record or history of contact or link with any criminal.”

Although he did not dare to explicitly declare his innocence, he concludes his letter by stating that “I have never been a threat or risk to the community” and that throughout his life there is “no criminal record, quite the contrary.” Therefore, he begs the judge to “allow me to return as soon as possible to my family and reintegrate into the beloved society to which I respect and belong.”

He also wrote that he has been detained in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center for 58 months “in inhumane conditions,” subject to threats, infected with Covid and even segregated in “punishment cells."

But he has maintained, he says, good behavior and has even dedicated himself to secondary and university education efforts for other inmates and to anti-drug programs for those accused of drug-related crimes. He regrets having missed stages in the life of his family, especially his children, as a result of the loss of relatives.

However, there had been several accusations before and during Luna's trial of threatening journalists, witnesses, and attempting to bribe other inmates.

During the Mexican Senate session on October 16, just a few hours after learning of the 460-month prison sentence for Genaro García Luna, the Morena Party hung a banner to point out the links between him and his boss, former President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, with drug trafficking.

Borderland Beat Articles on Luna

Sources DOJ, La Jordana, Keegan Hamilton