The U.S. returns $2.5 million to Mexico seized from Genaro García Luna, a former Mexican official convicted of drug trafficking

The Mexican Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) reported that a United States judge ordered that the U.S. return $2.5 million to Mexico seized from Genaro García Luna, the former Mexican secretary of public security found guilty of drug trafficking. The decision came in response to a civil lawsuit filed in Florida.

"The judge ordered to transfer to the Government of Mexico within a maximum period of 10 days, through its lawyers, the assets of the company, which amount to $1,968,250, for three properties already liquidated. And also, another department in Miami, with an approximate price of $555,800", the UIF explained in a statement published on the Mexican government’s website.

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‘Recovery of assets in Florida’

The judge ordered the transfer of $2,524,050, equivalent to about 44 million Mexican pesos, from the sale of properties that were acquired in Florida by García Luna and his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, with money from the corrupt plot organized by both.

"It is primarily the recovery of assets in Florida, the product of acts of corruption by the gang that García Luna organized and that operated for more than ten years, during the six-year terms of Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto. The repatriated resources will be allocated in accordance with current laws for the benefit of the people of Mexico," said the UIF.