Mexico\u2019s ex-public security chief convicted in US drug case
\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A former Mexican presidential cabinet member was convicted in the U.S. on Tuesday of taking massive bribes to protect the violent drug cartels he was tasked with combating.
\nUnder tight security, an anonymous New York federal court jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict in the drug trafficking case against ex-Public Security Secretary Genaro Garc\u00eda Luna.
\nHe is the highest-ranking current or former Mexican official ever to be tried in the United States.
\n\u201cGarc\u00eda Luna, who once stood at the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels,\u201d Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
\nGarc\u00eda Luna, who denied the allegations, headed Mexico\u2019s federal police and was later the country\u2019s top public safety official from 2006 to 2012. His lawyers said the charges were based on lies from criminals who wanted to punish his drug-fighting efforts and to get sentencing breaks for themselves by helping prosecutors.
\nHe showed no apparent reaction on hearing the verdict. His lawyer, C\u00e9sar de Castro, said that the defense planned to appeal and that the case lacked \u201ccredible and reliable evidence.\u201d
\n\u201cThe government was forced to settle for a case built on the backs of some of the most notorious and ruthless criminals to have testified in this courthouse,\u201d de Castro said outside court.
\nGarc\u00eda Luna, 54, was convicted on charges that include engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. He faces at least 20 years and as much as life in prison at his sentencing, set for June 27.
\nThe case had political ramifications on both sides of the border.
\nCurrent Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador has railed throughout the trial against ex-President Felipe Calder\u00f3n\u2019s administration for, at a minimum, putting Garc\u00eda Luna in charge of Mexico\u2019s security. L\u00f3pez Obrador spokesperson Jes\u00fas Ram\u00edrez tweeted after the verdict that \u201cjustice has come\u201d to a Calder\u00f3n ally and that \u201cthe crimes committed against our people will never be forgotten.\u201d
\nGarc\u00eda Luna\u2019s work also introduced him to high-level American politicians and other officials, who considered him a key cartel-fighting partner as Washington embarked on a $1.6 billion push to beef up Mexican law enforcement and stem the flow of drugs.
\nThe Americans weren\u2019t accused of wrongdoing, and although suspicions long swirled around Garc\u00eda Luna, the trial didn\u2019t delve into the extent of U.S. officials\u2019 knowledge about them before his 2019 arrest. L\u00f3pez Obrador has, however, pointedly suggested that Washington investigate its own law enforcement and intelligence officials who worked with Garc\u00eda Luna during Calder\u00f3n\u2019s administration.
\nA roster of ex-smugglers and former Mexican officials testified that Garc\u00eda Luna took millions of dollars in cartel cash, met with major traffickers in settings ranging from a country house to a car wash and kept law enforcement at bay.
\nHe was \u201cthe best investment they had,\u201d said Sergio \u201cEl Grande\u201d Villarreal Barragan, a former federal police officer who worked for cartels on the side and later as his main job.
\nHe and other witnesses said that on Garc\u00eda Luna\u2019s watch, police tipped off traffickers about upcoming raids, ensured that cocaine could pass freely through the country, colluded with cartels to raid rivals, and did other favors. One ex-smuggler said Garc\u00eda Luna shared a document that reflected U.S. law enforcement\u2019s information about a huge cocaine shipment that was seized in Mexico around 2007.
\nOne ex-smuggler, \u00d3scar \u201cEl Lobo\u201d Nava Valencia, said he personally heard Garc\u00eda Luna and a then-top police official say they would \u201cstand with us\u201d during a meeting with notorious Sinaloa cocaine cartel kingpin Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman\u2019s associates amid a cartel civil war. That sit-down alone cost the drug gang $3 million, Nava Valencia said.
\nGarc\u00eda Luna didn\u2019t testify at the trial, although his wife took the stand in an apparent effort to portray their assets in Mexico as legitimately acquired and upper-middle-class, but not lavish. The couple moved to Miami in 2012, when the Mexican administration changed and he became a consultant on security issues.
\nThe trial was peppered with glimpses of such narco-extravagances as a private zoo with a lion, a hippo, white tigers and more. Jurors heard about tons of cocaine moving through Latin America in shipping containers, go-fast boats, private jets, planes, trains and even submarines.
\nAnd there were horrific reminders of the extraordinary violence those drugs fueled.
\nWitnesses described cartel killings and kidnappings, allegedly including an abduction of Garc\u00eda Luna himself. There was testimony about police officers being slaughtered and drug-world rivals being dismembered, skinned and dangled from bridges as cartel factions fought each other while buying police protection.
\nTestimony also aired a secondhand claim that Calder\u00f3n, the former president, sought to shield Guzm\u00e1n against a major rival; Calder\u00f3n called the allegation \u201cabsurd\u201d and \u201can absolute lie.\u201d
\nGarc\u00eda Luna was arrested after allegations of his alleged graft emerged at Guzman\u2019s high-profile trial about four years ago in the same New York courthouse.
\nThe former lawman also faces various Mexican arrest warrants and charges relating to government technology contracts, prison contracting and the bungled U.S. \u201cFast and Furious\u201d investigation into suspicions that guns were illegally making their way from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels. The Mexican government has also filed a civil suit against Garc\u00eda Luna and his alleged associates and businesses in Florida, seeking to recover $700 million that Mexico claims he garnered through corruption.
\nAnticorruption activists gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate Tuesday\u2019s verdict.
\n\u201cMy country is a grave. It\u2019s now a cemetery … thanks to the corruption,\u201d said Carmen Paes, who blamed drug lords in her native Mexico for the disappearance of a nephew decades ago.
\nApnews<\/p>\n
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