Mexico’s Former Public Security Chief Convicted in US Drug

Mahir Ahmed, MA Global Media and Communications

Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s public security minister, was recently found guilty of taking millions of dollars from Mexico’s biggest crime group, the Sinaloa cartel. García Luna is one of the highest-ranking Mexican o cials ever accused of ties to drug tra cking. In 2001, he led Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency and was public security minister from 2006 to 2012. During his tenure, he had worked closely with U.S. counter-narcotics and intelligence agencies as part of former President Felipe Calderon’s crackdown on cartels.

his role in this corruption case all the more concerning. Saritha Komatireddy, an American prosecutor, told very close relationship for many years with U.S. intelligence.

Luna had accepted ‘millions of dollars’ in bribes from the cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman in exchange for protection from arrest, safe passage for drug shipments and tip-o s about forthcoming law enforcement operations. Luna received an award from the CIA for his ‘friendship, collaboration, and support,’ which makes jurors, ‘ ese leaders paid the defendant bribes for protection – and they got what they paid for,’ Komatireddy said in her closing argument, referring to Guzman and two other top-ranking Sinaloa cartel gures. is court case has cast doubt on the U.S.’s role in the War on Drugs. A new report from the U.S. Institute of Peace claims that Mexican elites ‘captured’ the bene t of U.S. security assistance while drug tra cking continued to take a toll on both Mexican and U.S. civilian lives.

In the press release that followed García Luna’s guilty verdict, current DEA administrator, Anne Milgram portrayed the conviction as a pivotal victory in the drug war. ‘ is case a rms DEA’s dedication to target and bring to justice those that enable the Sinaloa criminal drug cartel to ood the U.S. with deadly drugs that are killing Americans at unprecedented rates,’ Milgram said in a recent statement. However, the U.S. government’s ability to continue with the War on Drugs has proven to be problematic. Security analyst Alejandro Hope suggested that ‘[García Luna] had a