Genaro Garcia Luna, the official who for a number of years led Mexico’s battle towards the nation’s violent drug commerce, was sentenced to greater than 38 years in US jail for accepting bribes from the cartels he was alleged to battle.
The US district decide Brian Cogan introduced the sentence at a listening to in Brooklyn federal court docket on Wednesday.
Prosecutors had urged a life sentence for Garcia Luna, 56, after he was convicted at trial in February 2023 for participating in a prison drug enterprise, participating in numerous conspiracies and making false statements.
They argued Garcia Luna took hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel as soon as led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, higher referred to as El Chapo, and in alternate shielded its members from arrest and guarded its cocaine shipments.
In asserting the 460-month sentence, Cogan mentioned Garcia Luna ought to have “some mild on the finish of the tunnel”, crediting him for his work educating fellow inmates at Brooklyn’s metropolitan detention heart. However the decide mentioned Garcia Luna lived a “double life”, with the hurt he brought on outweighing his good deeds.
“Apart out of your very nice demeanor and your articulateness, you might have the identical sort of thuggishness as El Chapo, it simply manifests itself otherwise,” Cogan mentioned.
Garcia Luna served as Mexico’s public safety minister from 2006 to 2012.
His protection lawyer Cesar de Castro had prompt Cogan ought to sentence him to not than the obligatory minimal of 20 years, noting he has already spent almost 5 years in jail since his 2019 arrest.
The protection had argued at trial that the previous Sinaloa cartel members who cooperated with prosecutors and testified towards Garcia Luna had falsely implicated him to attempt to cut back their very own sentences.
Earlier than studying the sentence, Garcia Luna mentioned in court docket that Mexico’s authorities and prison teams had smeared him. “I’ve not dedicated any of those crimes,” he mentioned. “I’m not the person who the criminals level to.”
El Chapo is serving a life sentence at a Colorado most safety jail after being convicted in 2019 on drug expenses.
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