In this courtroom sketch, defense attorney César de Castro, left, Mexico’s former top security official Genaro García Luna, center, and a court interpreter appear for an arraignment hearing in Brooklyn federal court Friday, January 3, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)
By JIM MUSTIAN, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Mexico’s former top security official pleaded not guilty on Friday on charges he accepted a fortune in drug money bribes from kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s notorious Sinaloa cartel to let it operate with impunity.
Genaro García Luna, 51, was indicted in New York on three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and a false statements charge.
During his brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom, García Luna shook his head “no” as prosecutors outlined the charges against him.
A judge ordered him detained after Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Reid argued that he would pose an “unacceptable risk of flight” if released. García Luna’s lawyer, César de Castro, said he would ask the court at a later date for his client to be granted bail.
García Luna was viewed as the point man in then-President Felipe Calderón’s 2006-2012 war on drugs. As public safety secretary, he was one of the most feared members of Calderón’s government, but for years was dogged by allegations about his ties to drug traffickers.
Calderón’s government was criticized for not going after the Sinaloa cartel with the same energy as the cartel’s rivals. Calderón always rebuffed that criticism.
U.S. prosecutors said in a court filing this month that García Luna had accepted “tens of millions of dollars” in bribes —often briefcases full of cash— to protect the cartel.
“Because of the defendant’s corrupt assistance, the Sinaloa Cartel conducted its criminal activity in Mexico without significant interference from Mexican law enforcement and imported multi-ton quantities of cocaine and other drugs into the United States,” prosecutors wrote.
They added that García Luna “prioritized his personal greed over his sworn duties as a public servant and assured the continued success and safety of one of the world’s most notorious trafficking organizations.”
De Castro declined to comment on the charges.
During Guzmán’s 2018 New York trial, jurors heard former cartel member Jesús Zambada testify that he personally made at least $6 million in hidden payments to García Luna, on behalf of his older brother, cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
It’s alleged that during the time García Luna protected the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for bribes, the cartel, at the direction of Chapo Guzmán, Mayo Zambada and other leaders, sent multi-ton drug loads to New York and other American cities, including the federal district covering Brooklyn and Queens, according to court documents.
García Luna lived in Miami, Florida, before his arrest last month in Texas. From 2001 to 2005, he led Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency and from 2006 to 2012 served as Mexico’s secretary of public security before relocating to the U.S., authorities said.
It took them too long to act thousands have known for year what G. Luna was doing now they should indict Calderon and Pena Nieto his protectors.