Mexico’s former public security chief is set to be sentenced in a U.S. court on Wednesday after being convicted of taking bribes to aid drug traffickers. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are asking a judge to order that Genaro García Luna be incarcerated for life, while his lawyers say he should spend no more than 20 years behind bars, the Associated Press reports. García Luna, 56, was convicted early last year of taking millions of dollars in bribes to protect the violent Sinaloa cartel that he was supposedly combating. He denied the allegations.
Prosecutors wrote that García Luna’s actions advanced a drug trafficking conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of thousands of American and Mexican citizens. “It is difficult to overstate the magnitude of the defendant’s crimes, the deaths and addiction he facilitated and his betrayal of the people of Mexico and the United States,” prosecutors wrote. “His crimes demand justice.”
García Luna headed Mexico’s federal police before he served in a cabinet-level position as the country’s top security official from 2006 to 2012 during the administration of former Mexican President Felipe Calderón. García Luna was not only considered the architect of Calderón’s bloody war on cartels, but was also hailed as an ally by the U.S. in its fight on drug trafficking. During the trial, photos were shown of García Luna shaking hands with former President Barack Obama and speaking with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John McCain. But prosecutors say that in return for millions of dollars, García Luna provided intelligence about investigations against the cartel, information about rival cartels and the safe passage of massive quantities of drugs. Prosecutors said he ensured drug traffickers were notified in advance of raids and sabotaged legitimate police operations aimed at apprehending cartel leaders.
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