On Tuesday, February 21, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, found Mexico’s former secretary of public security, Genaro García Luna, guilty of conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel. Known as the “supercop” due to the outsize power he wielded during the administration of conservative president Felipe Calderón, García Luna was convicted on all counts: conspiracy to distribute cocaine internationally, conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine, and conspiracy to import cocaine, together with participating in a continuing criminal enterprise and making false statements on his application to become a naturalized US citizen.

In a statement, US attorney Breon Peace declared that García Luna had betrayed his duty by “accepting millions of dollars in bribe money that was stained by the blood of Cartel wars and drug-related battles” in exchange for “protecting those murderers and traffickers he was solemnly sworn to investigate.” The jury’s verdict, he concluded, was “a shining light for the rule of law, right over wrong, and justice over injustice.”