Former Mexican security secretary Genaro García Luna sentenced to almost 39 years in prison for drug trafficking

In addition, Genaro García Luna received a fine of two million dollars for drug trafficking and collaboration with organized crime.

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Former Mexican Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna was sentenced Wednesday in a New York court to sentences totaling more than 38 years in prison .

In addition, the former Mexican official received a fine of two million dollars for drug trafficking crimes , collaboration with organized crime (the Sinaloa Cartel) and false testimony before the US authorities.

García Luna, 56, who listened impassively to the sentence, was the top official in charge of public security during the six-year term of Mexican President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), a period in which he led the strategy of the so-called “war on drugs.”

The former Mexican public official, whose defense announced that it will appeal the sentence and requested that he serve it near Washington DC, is sentenced to a total of 460 months for the crimes committed ( 38 years and 3 months of sentence ), plus an additional period of up to six years of supervised release.

The double life of Genaro García Luna

In his final sentence, presiding judge Brian Cogan accused him of leading a double life .

“He is not directly responsible for each of the deaths caused by drug trafficking , but he was one of its main facilitators (…) You led a double life ; on the one hand you had a loving family and on the other you allowed this great criminal enterprise (the Sinaloa Cartel) to continue operating (…) Your way of thinking is very similar to that of El Chapo,” said the judge.

García Luna, who maintained a serious expression throughout the hour-long session, which he attended in a dark grey suit and maroon tie , spoke for seven minutes and for the last time during the trial he faced in the federal court in New York.

“I want to reaffirm my innocence of all crimes before my family and before my country (…) The trial against me is the result of false information provided to the Government of Mexico. Once again it shows how political powers really linked to drug trafficking operate,” said the highest-ranking Mexican official ever convicted in the United States, who was accompanied by his wife and two daughters in court.

Exfuncionario mexicano, Genaro García Luna es declarado culpable, más información aquí: https://t.co/00K4QJQrzY #SeguridadCompartida pic.twitter.com/eRRu3fR9Yz

— Embajada EU en Mex (@USEmbassyMEX) October 16, 2024

‘Satisfied’ with the sentence

After hearing the sentence, García Luna’s defense, led by his lawyer César de Castro , approached the former Mexican president with a satisfied expression, while his family expressed some relief, since the Prosecutor’s Office had requested life imprisonment and a fine of five million dollars .

During the session, De Castro insisted that “20 years of imprisonment are not enough, they are too many” and argued that under no circumstances should García Luna be sentenced to life imprisonment because not even presidents such as Honduran Juan Orlando Hernández , also sentenced for his links to drug trafficking, have received such long sentences.

“You see a family in ruins. My client’s reputation was shown to have exemplary conduct during his time in prison, but it was destroyed worldwide after a trial led by the highest political spheres in Mexico. How can 20 years of sentence not be enough?” repeated De Castro.

‘He was worse than El Chapo ‘

The Attorney General’s Office responded vehemently today by calling Felipe Calderón’s right-hand man in matters of security “the cartel itself”: “He protected the cartel (of Sinaloa), the cartel could not function without his connivance. He was the cartel,” they said.

” He (Garcia Luna) was worse than ‘El Chapo ‘ because without him, ‘El Chapo’ would not have been able to operate,” added the prosecutors, who added that his case was not comparable to that of Honduran Juan Orlando Hernandez because “Mexico is not a banana republic.”

In a later statement, the prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, attributed to García Luna “the importation of more than one million kilograms of lethal narcotics” from Mexico to the United States, ” incalculable violence ” in both countries, and considered that the sentence sends a “strong message.”

After Judge Cogan’s decision was announced, a dozen Mexicans outside the federal court in New York shouted in unison: “Felipe Calderón, you’re next.”

The sentence was finally handed down more than a year and a half after he was found guilty on five charges in February 2023. At that time, the 12 jurors in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York unanimously found him responsible for the crimes.

Cogan already sentenced Joaquín ‘el Chapo’ Guzmán to life imprisonment in 2019 and will lead the case against the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael ‘el Mayo’ Zambada , in this same court starting this Friday.

New York thus becomes the place where the major trials against Latin American drug trafficking are decided.