Former Mexico top cop Genaro Garcia Luna, who took millions in bribes to do the bidding of El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel, was sentenced to more than 38 years behind bars Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
“Aside from your pleasant demeanor and your articulateness, you have the same kind of thuggishness as El Chapo. It just manifests itself in a different way,” Judge Brian Cogan said before hitting him with a 38-year, four-month sentence.
Garcia Luna, 56, was convicted after a four-week trial in Brooklyn last year on charges he abused his authority by providing the cartel with everything from intel on when raids would take place to police uniforms and equipment to help them get the upper hand in clashes with rivals.
The judge blasted Garcia Luna’s long list of law enforcement awards, which his defense lawyer presented in a bid to get a 20-year minimum. “That does not move me because that was your cover,” he said. “You cannot parade a series of awards, I think there are 30 awards … and say, ‘I am police officer of the year.’”
Prosecutors were asking for life in prison.
Garcia Luna headed Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency, or AFI, from 2001 to 2006, before he became the country’s secretary of public security, a job he held from 2006 to 2012.
Prosecutors called Garcia Luna the cartel’s “most valuable asset” at the trial, and said he worked for druglord Arturo Beltran Leyva, then his cousin, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who took over the cartel in a bloody civil war in the late 2000s. Guzman was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years in 2019.
“He did all this while knowing that thousands of Americans and Mexicans were dying from drug overdoses and cartel-related violence, and he bears responsibility for those deaths,” federal prosecutors wrote in a letter to Cogan filed Sept. 19.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said the Sinaloa cartel couldn’t have existed without help from Garcia Luna’s corruption.
“In many ways, the defendant is not the same as Chapo. He’s worse. He enabled Chapo to exist,” she said.
Garcia Luna maintained his innocence throughout the trial, saying in a prepared statement, “I have not committed any of these crimes.”
AP / Elizabeth Williams
In a courtroom sketch, Genaro Garcia Luna is pictured at his trial last year. (AP / Elizabeth Williams)
“Today’s sentencing of Genaro Garcia Luna is a critical step in upholding justice and the rule of law,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Thursday. “His betrayal of the public trust and the people he was sworn to protect resulted in more than 1 million kilograms of lethal narcotics imported into our communities
and unleashed untold violence here and in Mexico.”
In a letter to Cogan, Garcia Luna pleaded for leniency, extolling his virtuous upbringing and describing himself as a a tireless enemy of terrorism and drug trafficking. He blamed the conviction on “the false information provided by the current government of Mexico and the criminal witnesses.”
Garcia Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, unsuccessfully tried to have the guilty verdict tossed, alleging several of the government’s witnesses colluded with each other to perjure themselves and providing an affidavit from a Metropolitan Detention Center inmate who heard the plan to frame Garcia Luna, who was awaiting trial in the Brooklyn jail.
When prosecutors investigated the inmate’s claims, they learned that Garcia Luna offered to pay other inmates to confirm the tale, Cogan said in a ruling in August.
Originally Published:
