The 56-year-old was found guilty last year of secretly accepting large bribes from Mexico's largest cartel under the leadership of drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Guzmán is serving a life sentence in the USA.
On Wednesday, he received his sentence: 460 months, over 38 years, in an American prison.
"Garcia Luna accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel to allow millions of kilos of cocaine to flood the streets of the USA", says Anne Milgram, head of the US federal drug police, in a press release.
"Instead of protecting Mexico's citizens, Garcia Luna protected drug cartels", she continues, adding that no one, regardless of their position of power, can escape justice.
According to the verdict, García Luna accepted bribes during his time as head of the Mexican federal police, and subsequently during his entire time in government. In exchange, he turned a blind eye – or even acted as a protector – when large quantities of cocaine were smuggled from producing countries like Colombia via Mexico to the USA and Europe.
He is also said to have provided Sinaloa with intelligence and thereby "helped the cartel attack rival drug cartels", according to prosecutors.
Genaro García Luna was a minister in President Felipe Calderón's government from 2006 to 2012. He then moved to Miami, where he started a security company. He was arrested in December 2019 in Dallas, Texas.
