Mexico's Former "Drug Czar" Gets 38 Years
"You have the same kind of thuggishness as El Chapo," the judge tells García Luna
Today, a federal court in Brooklyn New York sentenced Mexico’s former security chief Genaro García Luna to 460 months, or over 38 years, in prison for cocaine trafficking crimes.
I wrote this story following García Luna’s conviction last year on what it says about whether Mexico is a “narco state.” As there has been surge in new readers, I’m re-posting here with updates from the sentencing.
Great article. Mr Grillo always seems to get the gist of the matter, the meat of it.
My own exposure to the way the Mexican government functions was thirty years ago in Loreto, Baja. Company fishing trip, I broke off from the crowd and made friends downtown with some dirtbag travelers at the good hotel. At the end of the night, I found myself in a circle of people passing a joint around, including the owner of the hotel and his friend, a good looking upright young man.
At this time in Loreto the Mexican army had set up sandbagged machine gun emplacements staffed by sullen young men - boys, really, their helmets too big for their frames. Mexican helicopters were flying back and forth along the coast.
I asked the owner’s friend, “Aren’t you nervous smoking dope with all this military around?”
“No,” he said. “I am the captain of this garrison.”
When I asked why here in Loreto, were there a lot of drugs passing through, he gestured north and said, “No. The drugs are going through Mulege. We’re here because the US gives us millions of dollars and we have to show we’re doing something.”
This was an eye-opener.
I have a story about garcia luna. I had just finished Don Winslow's trilogy about Mexico's cartels. I could figure out who some of the real life characters were including. Garcia Luna. Then he turns up on the board of an international security company based in Utah, SecureAlert. I emailed the company asking why garcia luna was on their board given his past. But I never got a reply.