Never before has the connection between Mexican authorities and the drug trade been so clear. Genaro García Luna, the face of Mexico’s drug war, has been convicted in the United States on all charges against him. The New York East District Court’s ruling shattered the myth of the former federal police chief, one of the closest and most influential men in Felipe Calderón’s (2006-2012) cabinet and a trusted White House associate, and exposed him as a close associate of Sinaloa cartel in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes. The Latin American country is still processing the fallout of a historic verdict: the overthrow of Mexico’s top official, who was standing before a US court on drug trafficking and organized crime charges. “García Luna will live out the rest of his days as a traitor to the country,” Washington said after hearing the 12 jury’s decision.
Confidant of former President Calderón, architect of the hunt for drug lords, ambitious and feared official. Much of what was known about the early years of the drug war in Mexico was compiled from journalistic work, books, series and films. This time, however, it was the protagonists of the conflict who told everything without intermediaries: the drug dealers revealed how they paid millions in bribes to authorities at all levels, how they disguised themselves as police officers to catch their rivals, and how they had it Agreements on the distribution of profits from drug trafficking.
The trial was drug trafficker testimony, the continuation of the 2018 trial of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, in the same court and before the same judge. The chain of complicity was adorned with the eccentricities of criminals, such as when Colombian Harold Poveda El Conejo cried on the podium, remembering his collection of exotic animals, or when Tirso Martínez El Futbolista declared that he deserved the nickname, because he owned four clubs professional footballers. But it wasn’t just criminals who pointed the finger at García Luna, it was ex-cops fined for refusing to cooperate with the cartels, corrupt ex-officials and US agents who, frustrated, told how the trust eroded into their Mexican counterparts.
García Luna and Calderón, in one image file. ALFREDO ESTRELLA (AFP)
The defense presented photos of the defendant with figures of the caliber of former President Barack Obama or former presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain. But it wasn’t enough. On the other side of the coin, prosecutors were able to prove the allegations without looking into García Luna’s passage through Cisen, which had been the main civilian espionage agency in Mexico for more than a decade; not to mention when he simulated the arrest of a kidnapping gang to broadcast live on TV without introducing the jury to the real estate empire he had been building in Miami since 2013 on suspicion of diversion of public funds. The Mexican government wants that money back, and in October 2021 it filed a civil lawsuit in Florida alleging embezzlement of more than $700 million.
The former official who monopolizes all reflectors in Mexico had his first important position in 2001, when he became director of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), created in the administration of Vicente Fox (2000-2006). He was in the immediate circle of that administration’s cabinet, but he was shy, stuttered, and rarely spoke in meetings with the President. Behind the scenes, he received more than a million dollars in bribes a month from the Sinaloa cartel. García Luna was a loyal ally: he gave them uniforms, vehicles and official IDs so that they could carry weapons for the exclusive use of the authorities. He leaked sensitive information to them so they wouldn’t be arrested. He collected the suitcases of money himself after talking to the kapos for hours. That was said during the trial and after the verdict was no longer a disputed truth, at least before the law.
At the end of 2006, when Calderón came to power, García Luna was – to his own surprise and that of others – appointed Minister of Public Security. His task was to build up the Federal Police, a company that in six years of his leadership increased in strength fivefold to reach 40,000 soldiers. There was no government that would have cooperated more with the White House on security issues. Decorated and praised by the United States, the accused no longer personally went to collect bribes, but was in constant contact with the criminals. He charged $3 million for 15-minute meetings, according to Óscar Nava Valencia El Lobo and Jesús El Rey Zambada, two of the most feared drug dealers of the time.
Federal agents helped drug dealers unload drug packages from planes, helped them hide, and then pretended to be looking for them. Criminal bosses had access to the highest echelons of politics. Like García Luna, they had them on the payroll: judges, leaders, journalists, authorities at all levels. Cartels grew like never before. “It would have been impossible without the government’s help,” said Sergio Villarreal El Grande, a former lieutenant. “The resolution is being used to attack me,” said Calderón, who was granted a residence permit in Spain last October after learning about the verdict.
The prosecution chose to build the case on the testimonies and with little physical evidence. Across the border, 3,000 kilometers from where García Luna’s fate was decided, the issue still ignites debates. The judge is expected to render a verdict at the end of June next year. The former official faces a life sentence of 20 years.
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