Corruption takes its toll: Mexico to receive US $578 million for former minister's case

(AFP) A US court sentenced a group of individuals and companies to pay $578 million to Mexico as reparations for plotting illicit business deals with a former Mexican security secretary imprisoned in the United States for drug trafficking, the government announced.

This is the second favorable ruling for Mexico in the lawsuits it filed to recover assets related to the corruption orchestrated by Genaro García Luna, the head of the anti-drug fight during the government of conservative President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012).

In 2024, García Luna was sentenced to 39 years in prison for protecting the powerful Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.

Rigged public contracts and money laundering

The new ruling comes a year after the U.S. justice system sentenced the former minister and his wife to pay $2.4 billion to the Mexican state, which accused the couple of forming a network of corruption through rigged public contracts and laundering the money in the United States.

"The judicial resolution sentences members of the Weinberg family and related companies to pay 578.5 million dollars as reparation for the patrimonial damage caused to the Mexican State," said the Finance Ministry in a statement quoted by AFP.

The agency highlighted that the total amount of sentences obtained in favor of Mexico for this case amounts to 3,067 million dollars, which represents "a relevant action of patrimonial recovery" promoted by the State.

The Claudia Sheinbaum government maintains that García Luna must also face charges in Mexico, such as his participation in a failed operation against arms trafficking and for irregularities in the privatization and equipping of federal prisons.