Genaro García Luna (born 10 July 1968) is a Mexican former government official and convicted drug trafficker. From 2006 to 2012, he served as Secretary of Public Security during the administration of Felipe Calderón. He was later found to have used his high-ranking role to favor the Sinaloa Cartel to engage in drug-trafficking activities during the Mexican drug war.
In the 2018 trial of the drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, his partner Jesus Zambada García testified to bribing García Luna with suitcases stuffed with $3 million in cash on two occasions.[2] On 9 December 2019, García Luna was arrested in the United States on charges of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.[3] On 21 February 2023, García Luna was found guilty of all five counts by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, making the once-highest ranking law enforcement official in Mexico now a convicted felon.[4] In October 2024, he was sentenced to 38 years in prison.[5]
In 1989, García Luna started his career in intelligence at the National Intelligence Centre (CISEN), where he worked in the Counterintelligence and Terrorism departments.[7] In 1998, he became the Coordinator-General for Intelligence of the Preventive Federal Police, where he helped design the framework for intelligence areas and their executive integration.[7]
In 2000, he was named Director for Planning and Operation for the Federal Judicial Police, where he introduced administrative structures and operational concepts. In 2001, García Luna was appointed founder and Director General of the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI).[6] As head of the AFI, he faced widespread criticism after it was revealed that a 2005 police raid, televised as a live operation to rescue kidnapping victims, had been staged. The alleged kidnappers had been detained the previous day and held without due process for nearly 20 hours, with one claiming he was tortured.[8]
He has authored several books on policing, including Contra el Crimen (2006), emphasizing intelligence-driven reforms, and El Nuevo Modelo de Seguridad para México (2011), which outlines Mexico's national security policy since the beginning of the Mexican drug war. As Secretary of Public Security from 2006 to 2012, García Luna founded the Federal Police Force in 2009, operating under his vision.[9]
After leaving government service, García Luna became a consultant and businessman focused on evaluating Mexico and Latin America's social, political, and economic conditions. He became a partner in GLAC, which provides a risk and security assessment index used by the business community to evaluate conditions across Mexico. The GLAC index is published in El Heraldo de México and El Financiero.[10][11][12] On 2015, García Luna was nominated to the Board of SecureAlert, Inc., a Utah-based company specializing in offender monitoring, which is controlled by Sapinda Asia, Ltd., and Lars Windhorst, who held a majority stake in the company.[13][14]
Financial transparency
García Luna has been unable to account for his wealth, which includes luxury homes and real estate in Mexico City. These assets would be beyond the means of a Mexican civil servant's salary.[15][16] In 2013, García Luna was listed among the "10 Most Corrupt Mexicans" by Forbes[17], to which he responded with a letter to Steve Forbes, accusing the publication of basing his inclusion on falsehoods and lacking journalistic integrity.[18]
Further allegations emerged during the 2018 trial of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, when the brother of El Chapo's former partner, Ismael Zambada García, testified that García Luna had been bribed with suitcases containing $3 million in cash on two occasions. This testimony further fueled accusations of García Luna's ties to organized crime.[2][3]
Trial
On 9 December 2019, García Luna was arrested in Dallas, Texas on charges of taking millions in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.[3] At that time, it was also reported that the Attorney General of Mexico (FGR) was looking to extradite him to Mexico on related charges.[19]The New York Times reported that the prosecution intended to introduce 75 kilograms (165 lb) of cocaine and 4 kg of heroin confiscated in four raids as evidence against Garcia Luna. They also planned to use financial records and intercepted communications at the trial beginning on 30 July 2020.[20]
U.S. courts denied Garcia Luna's requests for release on bond in March and April 2020.[21]Roberta S. Jacobson, the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico (2016–2018), asserted on 3 May 2020, that the Calderón government knew of the ties Genaro García Luna had with the Sinaloa Cartel.[22] Ex-president Felipe Calderón insisted they did not.[23] He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him on 7 October 2020.[24] On 21 February 2023, a Brooklyn jury found him guilty of all charges.[25] On 16 October 2024, he was sentenced to 38 years imprisonment.[26] He is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever to be convicted in the United States.[27]
^"Mexico's ex-security chief pleads not guilty to cartel links". BBC News. October 2020. On Wednesday, Mr García Luna pleaded not guilty to new charges added in July to those already brought against him.
