U.S. prosecutors link Genaro García Luna to Iván Reyes Arzate

A former Mexican federal police commander was arrested on Friday for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Mexican drug cartels to help them send cocaine into the United States , in a case linked to imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán , U.S. prosecutors said.

The office of U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue in Brooklyn , New York said the defendant Iván Reyes Arzate was arrested at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn , where he was serving a 40-month prison term after pleading no contest in 2018 to obstruction charges in an Illinois case.

Reyes had been scheduled to be released on January 27 and then deported to Mexico before a federal grand jury indicted him on Thursday on three conspiracy charges , Donoghue’s office said.

A lawyer for the defendant could not immediately be identified.

Reyes is expected to appear later Friday in a Brooklyn courtroom. Each charge carries a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, and prosecutors want Reyes subjected to permanent detention , calling him a “ significant flight risk .”

According to Donoghue’s office, Reyes received bribes from the El Seguimiento 39 cartel in exchange for helping protect its drug trafficking activities.

Multiple cooperating witnesses said other cartels including the Beltran Leyva Organization also paid bribes to Reyes for his assistance, Donoghue’s office said.

According to prosecutors, Reyes worked from 2003 to 2016 in the Mexican federal police’s Sensitive Investigative Unit , and from 2008 to 2016 was its top officer, making him the main contact for sharing information with U.S. law enforcement.

Prosecutors said Reyes’ case was “ presumptively related ” to their cases in Brooklyn against Guzmán and Genaro García Luna , formerly Mexico’s top security official because the facts arose from the same criminal schemes, transactions, and events.

without parole after being convicted last year.

García Luna pleaded not guilty

on January 3 to accepting millions of dollars in bribes to let Guzmán’s Sinaloa drug cartel operate with impunity.

sg