Mexico ex-drug czar sentenced to more than 38 years in US prison over cartel bribes

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Genaro Garcia Luna, who for several years led Mexico's fight against the country's violent drug trade, was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 38 years in prison over his U.S. criminal conviction for accepting bribes from the cartels he was supposed to fight.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan announced the 460-month sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.

Prosecutors had urged a life sentence for Garcia Luna, 56, after he was convicted in February 2023 for engaging in a criminal drug enterprise, taking part in various conspiracies and making false statements.

They said in a Sept. 19 court filing that Garcia Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel once led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as El Chapo, and in exchange shielded its members from arrest and protected its cocaine shipments.

Garcia Luna served as Mexico's public security minister from 2006 to 2012.

His defense lawyer Cesar de Castro had suggested Cogan should sentence him to no longer than the mandatory minimum of 20 years, noting he has already spent nearly five years in jail since his 2019 arrest.

"A sentence of 20 years would represent the approximate length of Mr. Garcia Luna's entire career as a public servant to the Mexican government," de Castro wrote in a Sept. 25 court filing.

Guzman is serving a life sentence at a Colorado maximum security prison after being convicted in 2019 on drug charges.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)