BREAKING: Mexico’s former top cop found guilty of accepting Sinaloa Cartel bribes, protecting ‘El Chapo’

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's former top security official, was convicted on Tuesday in New York after he took millions in bribes from the cartels. The verdict, which came after three days of deliberation in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, reports The New York Times.

Garcia Luna was the head of Mexico's equivalent to the FBI and was found guilty of taking millions in bribes and providing protection to the Sinaloa cartel. He allowed the gang and its notorious leader El Chapo to ship drugs into the United States while providing them protection from arrest.

Garcia Luna first appeared on prosecutors' radar after the trial of El Chapo in 2019. He was arrested in 2019 in Dallas following the trial.

In a letter sent earlier this month to Judge Brian M Cogan, US attorney for the eastern district of New York Breon Peace said that "While holding public office, the defendant used his official positions to assist the Sinaloa Cartel, a notorious Mexican drug cartel, in exchange for multimillion-dollar bribes."

Peace said that the government expects a number of former high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel to testify during the trial.

"In exchange for these bribes, the defendant provided the Sinaloa Cartel with, among other things, safe passage for its drug shipments, sensitive law enforcement information about investigations into the cartel, and information about rival drug cartels," Peace wrote.

"These payments allowed the cartel at times to receive warnings in advance of law enforcement efforts to apprehend cartel members and to allow cartel members to be released if arrested. During the time that the defendant protected the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for bribes, the cartel was able to send multi-ton drug loads to the Eastern District of New York, including Brooklyn and Queens," he added.

Prosecutors used testimony from cartel operatives that claimed they had taken bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

The first witness, Sergio Villarreal Barragan, told the jury that Garcia Luna picked up more than $14 million in cash from a warehouse in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Another witness, Jesus Garcia, who is the brother of El Chapo's business partner Ismael Garcia, said that he personally packed millions into duffel bags that were given to Garcia Luna in a Mexico City restaurant, shortly after he became the country's public security secretary.

Garcia Luna maintained his innocence throughout the trial. He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.