A former Mexican security minister has been convicted of taking huge bribes and allowing drugs to flow through the country to protect violent drug cartels.
Genaro Garcia Luna was tasked with combating drug cartels, but instead allowed numerous favours including allowing police to tip traffickers about upcoming raids, ensuring that cocaine could pass freely through the country, and colluding with cartels to raid rivals.
Luna, 54, who denied the allegations, headed Mexico‘s federal police and then was its top public safety official from 2006 to 2012. He was arrested in 2019.
An anonymous court jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict. Luna was convicted on charges that included engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a potential 20 years to life in prison.
His sentencing is set for 27 June.
He is the highest-ranking current or former Mexican official ever to be tried in the US.
Throughout the trial, current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, rallied against former president Felipe Calderón’s administration for, at a minimum, putting Luna in charge of Mexico’s security.
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Luna’s work also introduced him to high-level American politicians who considered him a key cartel-fighting partner, as Washington embarked on a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) push to strengthen Mexican law enforcement and curb the flow of drugs.
The US have not been accused of any wrongdoing, despite holding long suspicions about Luna.
Gruesome glimpses into the drug world
Although Luna himself did not testify during the trial, a plethora of ex-smugglers and former Mexican officials testified that they witnessed him take millions of dollars in cartel cash, meet with major traffickers and keep law enforcement at bay.
Glimpses into the violence of drug cartels were also revealed, including an alleged abduction of Luna himself, and stories of drug-world rivals being dismembered, skinned and dangled from bridges as cartel factions fought each other while buying police protection.
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Luna’s lawyers said the charges were based on lies from criminals who wanted to punish his drug-fighting efforts in exchange for sentencing breaks.
His wife also took the stand in an apparent effort to portray their assets in Mexico as legitimately acquired and as upper-middle class but not lavish.
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The former secretary also faces various Mexican arrest warrants and charges relating to a bungled US investigation – known as the “Fast and Furious” investigation – into suspicions that guns were illegally making their way from the US to Mexican drug cartels.
The Mexican government has also filed a civil lawsuit against Luna and his alleged associates and businesses in Florida. They are seeking to recover $700m (£578m) that Mexico claims he garnered through corruption.
