Mexico: a former police chief tried in New York for drug trafficking

Former Mexican Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna is accused in the United States of taking millions of dollars in bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.

AFP/File

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The trial of Genaro García Luna, in charge of the fight against cartels, is accused by American justice of having contributed to drug trafficking in complicity with the Sinaloa cartel.

He also led the capture of Frenchwoman Florence Cassez, accused of being part of an organized crime gang.

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With our correspondent in Mexico, 

Arrested in 2019 in the United States, he was a past master in the art of simulation.

For twelve years, during two successive governments, Genaro Garcia Luna made an entire country believe that he was fighting against the bloody actions of the cartels.

Now, Mexico's former police chief is in the dock and will be tried for drug trafficking by

, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, to prison in perpetuity.

This Tuesday is the jury selection hearing. 

The man who led the so-called war against organized crime in 2006 under the government of Felipe Calderón, in reality, would have received millions of dollars from the organization of El Chapo to ensure his protection and guarantee the cocaine trade bound for the United States.

In October 2020, he pleaded not guilty to five counts in a US court.

He faces a minimum sentence of ten years in prison, up to life.

A staged arrest

Since

, Mexicans had nicknamed García Luna “

”.

He had set up from scratch a fake police operation broadcast live on television to make believe in the capture of a gang of kidnappers allegedly led by this Frenchwoman and her companion, Israel Vallarta.

The Frenchwoman was sentenced in 2008 to 96 years in prison for kidnapping and forcible confinement.

Her sentence was reduced on appeal to 60 years in 2009, and on January 23, 2013, she was released after her conviction was overturned by Mexico's Supreme Court.

The current president, Lopez Obrador, regularly cites this media and judicial machination as an example of the corruption that prevailed during García Luna's time. 

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• Mexico

• Justice

• Crime

• Dope

• Corruption

• United States