A Florida court has ordered Mexico’s ex-security chief Genaro García Luna and his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, to pay more than US $2.4 billion to the Mexican government.
The penalty, handed down last week, marks a historic judgment in Mexico’s fight against corruption and cartel influence at the highest levels of power.
Judge Lisa Walsh of Miami-Dade County ruled that García Luna, already serving a 38-year sentence in the U.S. for taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, must pay US $748 million, while Pereyra is liable for US $1.74 billion.
The combined total is three times what Mexico originally demanded in its suit, according to U.S. news reports.
The civil suit, filed by Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) in 2021, accused the couple of orchestrating a vast network of shell companies and fraudulent contracts to embezzle public funds and launder them through luxury real estate and assets in Florida.
Investigators identified Pereyra as the owner or beneficiary of multiple companies registered in the United States, Barbados and other jurisdictions, with names such as Only Best Properties Corp., Oggi Caffe LLC and GLAC Security.
According to UIF head Pablo Gómez Álvarez, the case centered on 30 contracts signed between 2009 and 2018 by agencies including Mexico’s former federal police force, the Prison Agency (operating under the National Security Commission) and CISEN (Mexico’s principal civilian intelligence agency).
These contracts — which totaled over US $625 million plus an additional 93.8 million pesos (US $4.9 million) — were allegedly inflated or fabricated, with proceeds funneled through offshore accounts in Barbados and invested in high-end properties and vintage cars.
At the beginning of her Friday mañanera, or press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated the ruling, stating, “Honor to whom honor is due.”
She also credited the investigation to the previous administration under Andrés Manuel López Obrador and current Secretary of the Interior Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
Gómez highlighted the case as a milestone in the Mexican government’s campaign to recover diverted public funds and combat corruption.
Pereyra, described as the architect behind many of the family’s business ventures, operated companies and restaurants in Mexico and the U.S., allegedly using them as fronts to launder illicit funds.
Investigations revealed a network of at least 44 companies registered in jurisdictions including the U.S. and Barbados, designed to obscure the origin and movement of public money.
The UIF confirmed the 2023 recovery of over US $1.9 million in cash and a property valued at $555,800, with additional assets seized from related companies. At the time, López Obrador described it as an “advance payment” on what Mexico was seeking to reclaim from García Luna.
Once celebrated as the architect of Mexico’s war on drugs under President Felipe Calderón, García Luna was convicted in 2023 of accepting millions in bribes to protect the Sinaloa Cartel, facilitating the trafficking of over a million kilograms of cocaine into the United States.
Prosecutors described how he received cash in suitcases, briefcases and duffel bags, with cartel members testifying to direct payoffs.
His wife, Pereyra, was the only defense witness at his criminal trial, offering personal testimony in his support.
Last week, García Luna’s defense team was granted a 60-day extension for filing an appeal of his 38-year sentence, citing barriers that are preventing communication with their client, who remains incarcerated at USP Lee, or U.S. Penitentiary, Lee — a high-security federal prison for male inmates in Lee County, Virginia.
Approved on Friday, the extension sets a new deadline of Sept. 19 for the necessary paperwork to be filed. This marks the second time the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has given García Luna’s team an extension.
With reports from Associated Press, Infobae and CBS News
