The former Mexican Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna, was sentenced this Wednesday in a New York court to sentences totaling more than 38 years in prison in addition to a two million dollar fine, for drug trafficking and organized crime crimes, and for having benefited from millions of dollars paid by the Sinaloa Cartel.
García Luna, 56, who listened undaunted to the sentence, was the head of public security during the six-year term of Felipe Calderónin the government from 2006 to 2012, a time in which he was responsible for the entire anti-drug strategy.
Judge Brian Cogan, in his final speech in which he read the sentence, accused him of having led a double life, “combining his role in a beloved family with another as a facilitator of a large criminal enterprise” at the service of the Sinaloa cartel.
It is about the highest Mexican official convicted so far in the United Statesand his case joins that of other leaders, such as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last June to 45 years in prison, also for drug trafficking crimes.
