GARCÍA LUNA CASE

This Wednesday, October 16, the final day of Genaro García Luna’s hearing, Judge Brian Cogan determined that for the 4 charges of which he was found guilty he would receive more than 38 years in prison, that is 400 seventy months for each of the charges and 6 months for the charge of falsifying testimonies in his statements. In addition to the sentence that was changed according to what was planned by the Prosecutor’s Office, he will be given 5 years of supervised release after completing these 400 seventy months. One of the charges that implicated him as one of the most wanted by the United States Prosecutor’s Office is that of organized crime, this linked to members of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was also fined 2 million dollars. “He took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel and allowed the entry of drugs into the United States,” is the title of a statement by the United States Prosecutor, Breon Peace, on the determination of the case. “Garcia Luna, who once stood at the top of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live out the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels,” the U.S. Attorney General said in a statement. The prosecutor added in the text he released after the conviction that it is inconceivable that the defendant would betray his duty as Secretary of Public Security “by greedily accepting millions of dollars in bribe money that was stained by the blood of cartel wars and drug-related battles on the streets of the United States and Mexico.” US Attorney’s Office asked for life imprisonment for García Luna A year after the Court found him guilty, the official showed up with multiple apologies and alleged evidence at the hearing in New York where the Attorney General’s Office had recommended sentencing him to life imprisonment, with what he has exposed in letters and audios that he has in his possession García Luna asked for the minimum sentence of 20 years and the possibility of revealing names of other people involved from the Mexican government in the organized crime case. For this hearing that had been postponed, García Luna arrived dressed in civilian clothes, he asked to attend in a suit and tie as he usually appeared due to his public office, now it could be the last time he is seen on the scene before the determination of his final sentence. In the arguments the judge explained why he would not give him life imprisonment, among the reasons is that he had already served five years in prison and “had done a lot of good” in prison.

Nota publicada originalmente en El Heraldo de México