Pallade Veneta - Garcia Luna: Mexico's 'supercop' turned cartel abettor

The ex-public security minister, who was sentenced to more than 38 years in a US prison on Wednesday, is considered an architect of the US-backed war on drugs launched in 2006 by Mexico's then president Felipe Calderon.

At the time, he was already profiting from his influence with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the since-convicted founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Justice Department said at the time of Garcia Luna's arrest in Texas in 2019.

"From 2001 to 2012, while occupying high-ranking law enforcement positions in the Mexican government, Garcia Luna received millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for providing protection for its drug trafficking activities," it said.

The 56-year-old, who maintains his innocence, is the highest-ranking Mexican official to be convicted in the United States.

As a child, Garcia Luna dreamed of being a football player.

Instead, before even becoming an adult, he was recruited by the security services as an informant, according to the InSight Crime think tank.

Garcia Luna studied mechanical engineering at university before joining the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN) in the early 1990s.

"Although he was initially tasked with monitoring guerrilla groups, he later shifted his focus to tackling groups dedicated to kidnapping," InSight Crime said.

"His success in helping locate and rescue several high-profile businessmen reportedly allowed him to rise through the ranks," it added.

- 'Methodical' and 'indispensable' -

Former anti-drug prosecutor Samuel Gonzalez, who met Garcia Luna in the mid-1990s, remembers him as "very methodical" in his work and "very ready to offer support."

"He had a great capacity to promote himself. He knew how to make himself indispensable," Gonzalez told AFP.

After almost a decade with CISEN, Garcia Luna joined the nascent Federal Police and by 2001 he was already head of the Federal Investigation Agency, the Mexican equivalent of the FBI.

His rise, however, seemed to be based on questionable behavior, according to Gonzalez.

"He made kidnapping victims dependent on the person they assumed was their rescuer and then asked them for favors," he said.

Garcia Luna's biggest scandal as a public official was staging an alleged operation against a gang of kidnappers in Mexico City for the media in 2005.

Even so, his results led to his appointment as Mexico's top public security official between 2006 and 2012.

"He was one of the driving forces behind Mexico's militarization in its fight against drug trafficking," according to InSight Crime.

Around 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have disappeared in a spiral of violence since Calderon deployed the armed forces to battle drug cartels in 2006.

Garcia Luna, known for dressing in a suit and tie, won praise from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration for his investigations and cooperation.

In 2012, after retiring from public service, Garcia Luna moved to the United States and used his extensive contacts to win lucrative contracts with the Mexican government.

He applied for naturalization in 2018 and acquired a collection of luxury properties in Florida.

"He has so much money that it's hard to tell how much of it is from drug trafficking and how much from his business," Gonzalez said.

S.Urciuoli--PV