Mexico’s ex-security minister convicted of drug trafficking

BBC reported that the former face of Mexico’s war on drugs has been convicted by a US jury of drug trafficking.

Genaro Garcia Luna, once Mexico’s security minister, was found guilty of taking millions of dollars from Mexico’s biggest crime group, the Sinaloa drug cartel. Garcia Luna – who was arrested in the state of Texas in 2019 – had pleaded not guilty. The 54-year-old could face up to 10 years in prison.

The verdict came after a four-week trial and three days of jury deliberation in the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York. Prosecutors said the former head of the Mexican equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations accepted millions of dollars stuffed in briefcases and delivered by cartel members. He is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever to be tried in the US.

Garcia Luna served as public security chief during the administration of President Felipe Calderon between 2006 and 2012. Before that, he led the Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2006.