By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Genaro Garcia Luna, who for several years led Mexico's fight against the country's violent drug trade, should spend the rest of his life in prison after accepting bribes to protect the cartels he was supposed to fight, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.
Garcia Luna faces an Oct. 9 sentencing in Brooklyn federal court before U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, following his February 2023 conviction for engaging in a criminal drug enterprise, taking part in various conspiracies and making false statements.
Prosecutors said Garcia Luna, Mexico's public security minister from 2006 to 2012, took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel once led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as El Chapo.
In exchange, he became an "essential ally and member" of the cartel, shielding members from arrest and providing aid as it shipped more than 1 million kilograms (2.2 million pounds) of cocaine through Mexico into the United States, prosecutors said.
"It is difficult to overstate the magnitude of the defendant's crimes, the deaths and addiction he facilitated, and his betrayal of the people of Mexico and the United States," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a letter to the judge. "His crimes demand justice."
Garcia Luna, 56, faces a mandatory minimum 20-year prison term. His lawyer Cesar de Castro plans to submit his own sentencing recommendation.
"Nothing in the government's arguments surprises me," de Castro said in an email. "The only surprise was that it submitted the letter earlier than required."
Prosecutors said Garcia Luna essentially lived separate lives, working with U.S. counter-narcotics and intelligence agencies while secretly on the Sinaloa cartel's payroll.
His assistance to the cartel included providing tips about government investigations and rival cartels, prosecutors said.
"The defendant committed these egregious acts while outwardly branding himself as the enemy of drug cartels and the ally of the United States," Peace wrote.
Guzman is serving a life sentence at a Colorado maximum security prison after being convicted in 2019 on drug charges.