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

By KELIN DILLON

On Wednesday, July 19, Mexico’s Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) reactivated arrest warrants against former Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, his wife Linda Cristina Pereyra, brothers and 60 other individuals linked to García Luna’s notorious “Fast and Furious” weapons trafficking scandal, embezzlement and the creation of illegal contracts during the development Mexican prisons.

According to the FGR’s statement on the matter, the alleged crimes are unrelated to the felony drug trafficking charges García Luna was convicted of in the United States back in February of this year.

Within the three distinct warrants, García Luna is accused of causing irreparable damage to justice and facilitating avoidable deaths smuggling weapons into Mexico, constructing prisons at an inflated price, which reportedly caused 64.9 billion pesos in damage to the Mexican Treasury, and greenlighting 10 illegal equipment contracts for Mexico’s federal public prisons to the tune of 5.1 billion pesos worth of damage – the latter of which went on to name Pereyra, García Luna, and 50-plus other accomplices as complicit in the embezzlement plot.

The FGR went on to reveal that it has urgently begun processing the extradition requests for the wanted individuals who have already fled Mexico with the corresponding authorities abroad and with assistance from Interpol, as well as freezing the bank accounts of those allegedly involved in García Luna’s schemes.

At the same time, the FGR revealed that Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is currently pursuing the recovery of assets stolen by García Luna and his accomplices in Miami, Florida.