Mexico wants $700 million from ex-official on trial in US

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Monday his country wants to recover a big chunk of money from former Mexican security official Genaro Garcia Luna, who is on trial in New York.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government wants to recover $700 million that García Luna allegedly accumulated as a result of corruption.

Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico has filed a lawsuit in Florida, where Garcia Luna lived after leaving Mexico.

Formerly the country’s top security officer, Garcia Luna is on trial in New York, accused of accepting briefcases full of cash — millions of dollars, in all — to let the notorious Sinaloa cartel operate with impunity as it sent tons of cocaine to the U.S.

He served as secretary of public security to then-President Felipe Calderon from 2006 to 2012. His lawyers say he was a legitimate businessman who did consulting in Florida before he was arrested in 2019.

López Obrador has long complained that when corrupt politicians and drug traffickers are convicted in the United States, the U.S. seizes and keeps their fortunes, which were often largely made in Mexico.