From 2006 to 2012 during Felipe Calderón’s presidency, Genaro García Luna was Mexico’s top law enforcement official, in charge of building a strategy to confront the powerful drug cartels and sharing intelligence with U.S. officials. He was also on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel.
Last month, García Luna — who was arrested in Dallas in 2019 — was sentenced to 38 years in prison by a federal judge in Brooklyn, a dramatic downfall for a man who once led Mexico’s federal police force and, according to testimony, received millions of dollars in bribes and served as the de facto protector of the cartel.
García Luna, 56, is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever convicted of corruption, and his harsh sentencing sends a message to other public officials, as the judge overseeing the trial said. At the very least, corrupt officials from Mexico and elsewhere will avoid setting foot on U.S. soil. But most importantly it shows that the U.S. still has strong accountability tools.
These tools also include the work of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, which were instrumental in the arrest last August of Ismael Zambada, leader of the Sinaloa cartel. That blindsided Mexican officials, who were not informed of the operation leading to the drug lord’s arrest.
It is unlikely that the U.S. officials will fully regain trust with their Mexican counterparts, but the timing of the García Luna sentencing offers an opportunity to reengage in bilateral cooperation to fight drug traffickers and corruption. That was severely damaged in the last few years under the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration.
There is a new Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and soon there will be a new U.S. administration. Better cooperation can lead to better results in the fentanyl war, while improving public safety and strengthening institutions in Mexico.
We are not naive about the prospects. Sheinbaum likely will continue López Obrador’s policy of non-confrontation with the cartels, and she is now leading a country in which her predecessor allowed the Mexican armed forces to gain more strength, power and influence.
This is not something to take lightly, and the case of Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos looms large. The Mexican general was arrested by U.S. officials in 2020 and accused of protecting drug lords, but charges were dropped after political and diplomatic pressure. The U.S. capitulated after López Obrador threatened to expel the DEA.
Since then, the power of the Mexican military has grown and now it oversees major infrastructure projects, tourism development, management of ports and even public health, often under unwritten agreements and with little oversight, opening the door for corruption.
The U.S. should remain vigilant even as reestablishing drug enforcement cooperation must be a priority for the next administration. The García Luna sentencing and other recent sentences against former Latin American public officials are sending the right message: There is zero tolerance for corrupt officials.
The Dallas Morning News
