Former Mexican minister found guilty in New York of drug trafficking
Former minister Genaro García Luna in 2010 (Illustration image).
© Marco Ugarte / AP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Former Mexican minister Genaro Garcia Luna, a former champion of the fight against drugs in his country, was found guilty this Tuesday, February 21 by a jury in a New York court of cocaine trafficking between Mexico and the States United States and faces life imprisonment.
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Twelve jurors in Brooklyn federal court have found Mexican President Felipe Calderon
's former public security minister
(2006-2012) guilty on all five counts.
And in particular to have received millions of dollars to protect the Sinaloa cartel and to be involved in the trafficking of at least 53 tons of cocaine from Mexico to the United States from 2001 to 2012.
After several days of deliberation and a month-long trial, Genaro Garcia Luna is now a "
convicted criminal
", welcomed the powerful federal prosecutor's office in Brooklyn in a statement.
"
Garcia Luna, who was once the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live out the rest of his life as a traitor to his country and to the dedicated law enforcement who risk their lives to dismantle the cartels of drugs
,” thundered federal prosecutor Breon Peace, quoted in the statement.
“
Justice has been served
”, welcomed on Twitter the spokesperson for the current Mexican presidency, Jesus Ramirez.
García Luna is declared guilty for tráfico de drogas, delincuencia organizada y falsedad de declaraciones en EU La justice ha llegado para quien fuera escudero de @FelipeCalderon.
Los crimenes en contra de nuestro pueblo no serán olvidados nunca.
— Jesus Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) February 21, 2023
Genaro Garcia Luna did not say a word during the debates.
His wife and their two children were present at the statement of the verdict in the face of which the former minister remained visibly imperturbable.
His sentence, which can range from 10 years in prison to life imprisonment, will be known in several weeks.
A “ two-faced
”
man
Since January 17, the prosecution had brought to the stand 26 prosecution witnesses, among whom nine are accused of drug trafficking, extradited to the United States for trial and to collaborate with justice in order to obtain sentences. lightened.
Prosecutors had asked the jury
to "get to know
" these repentant "
criminals
" and to "
use common sense in finding (Garcia Luna) guilty
": a 54-year-old "
two-faced
" Mexican drug minister who collaborated with Washington on one side and “
partner in crime
” of the Sinaloa cartel on the other.
Before becoming minister, Mr. Garcia Luna, a mechanical engineer by trade, was from 2001 to 2005 a police officer and head of the intelligence agency against corruption and organized crime.
He is the most senior Mexican official to have been tried by federal justice in New York, in the war against the drug cartels of Central and South America which take advantage of the complicity of local ministers to flood the market of the United States.
It was this Brooklyn court that sentenced former Sinaloa cartel leader
Joaquin "
El Chapo
" Guzman
to life in prison in 2019 .
Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested on December 9, 2019 in Dallas, Texas.
Since October 2020, he pleaded not guilty.
For his lawyer Cesar de Castro, there is "
no proof that he received money
" and "
the absence of proof is not proof
".
The name of Genaro Garcia Luna is also known, especially in France, because he was involved in the
Florence Cassez affair
in the 2000s.
► To read also: In Mexico, arrest of Ovidio Guzman, son of drug trafficker El Chapo
(
With
AFP)
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