"An indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Genaro Garcia Luna, the former Secretary of Public Security in Mexico from 2006 to 2012, with three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and one count of making false statements," the release said.
In exchange for multi-million dollar bribes, Garcia Luna allegedly permitted the Sinaloa cartel, one of the wealthiest and most powerful crime organizations in the world, to operate with impunity in Mexico, the Justice Department said.
On Monday, US federal agents arrested Garcia Luna in Dallas, Texas.
Luna led Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005, and he served as the country’s Secretary of Public Security, controlling its Federal Police Force, from 2006 to 2012, the release said.
On two occasions, the Sinaloa cartel personally delivered bribe payments to Garcia Luna in briefcases containing between three and five million dollars. If convicted, Luna faces a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in jail and a maximum life sentence, the Justice Department said.