Former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna. Photo: Google

By MARK LORENZANA

Former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna had allegedly accumulated illicit income of at least 27.3 million pesos during his time at the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) and the Federal Public Security Secretariat, as documented by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

The file on García Luna, imprisoned since 2019 in the United States, where he faces drug-trafficking charges, specifies that between 2000 and 2012 he received bank deposits from unidentified persons for 15 million pesos and participated in the purchase and sale of at least five properties for 9.7 million pesos.

García Luna also purportedly made unidentified payments of 2.3 million pesos to credit cards and purchased a vehicle for more than 617,000 pesos.

According to the FGR, based on data registered with Mexico’s Public Function Secretariat (SFP), in those years, García Luna never had a legal income other than the one he received in public service.

The case of illicit enrichment is only one of three arrest warrants that García Luna is facing in Mexico. The others are related to the so-called “Fast and Furious” gun-walking case and the overpriced concessions of federal prisons.

In both matters, the FGR has recently suffered legal setbacks in trying to keep other accused under trial. But in the event that García Luna were to be extradited to Mexico, the FGR has now prepared grounds to request his preventive imprisonment, which would argue that it would be easy for him to flee and leave the country.

For this reason, the FGR requested reports from the National Migration Institute (INM), which detailed that from July 29, 2010, to Nov. 24, 2019, García Luna exited and entered Mexican territory on 209 occasions, mainly leaving to the United States, where he has been a permanent resident since 2013.

The real estate transactions charged to García Luna by the Public Ministry (MP) and the FGR purportedly correspond to five assets that he acquired from 2000 to 2012 in Mexico City and the south-central Mexican state of Morelos.

The total value of the alleged properties is 15.2 million pesos.