A court in Florida has ordered a former security chief from Mexico, convicted on drug trafficking charges along with his wife, to pay a substantial sum of over $2.4 billion to the nation of Mexico, according to official government statements.
Genaro Garcia Luna, currently serving his sentence in the United States, was sued by Mexico for alleged corruption and money laundering linked to numerous public contracts. Garcia Luna, known formerly as a “supercop”, has been found guilty of aiding drug traffickers rather than opposing them.
When we consider that the sum decreed by the Florida court is three times the amount initially sought by the Mexican government. Reports indicate that Garcia Luna was directed to pay about $749 million, while his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, was assigned a staggering $1.74 billion.
It has been reported that the verdict aligns with seven prior guilty rulings enforced against Garcia Luna, his wife, and their five companies due to their absence at trial. Nearly $3 million has already been reclaimed from assets, inclusive of a company owned by the couple and real estate properties.
Garcia Luna, 56, was convicted by a U.S. court in 2023 for accepting millions in bribe money to permit the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle immense quantities of cocaine. Testimonies from former cartel members, as reported by the U.S. Justice Department, have indicated that bribe money was handed to Garcia Luna at various locations, including a disguised safe house and a French restaurant across from the U.S. Embassy.
The evidence suggests that Garcia Luna received bribe money in U.S. dollars, hidden in luggage and bags. He was sentenced to over 38 years in prison with a $2 million fine by a New York judge.
Detailed reports from the same court during a trial in 2018 revealed that a former member of the Sinaloa Cartel personally delivered at least $6 million in bribes to García Luna. The cartel members had pooled up to $50 million for his protection. This information was disclosed during the trial of kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado following his conviction in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapon-related offenses.
Garcia Luna occupied high-ranking security positions in Mexico from 2001 until 2012, making him the most senior Mexican official ever to face trial in the United States. He was arrested in December 2019 in Dallas, Texas. Mexico has accused a business conglomerate owned by Garcia Luna’s family of securing 30 public contracts and accumulating funds of over $745 million.
The Mexican Financial Intelligence Unit alleged that the money was transferred abroad through tax havens and by acquiring property and other assets in Florida. This follows an earlier report of the dramatic arrest of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on U.S. soil, who claimed he had been kidnapped in Mexico and transferred into U.S. custody against his will.