Genaro Garcia Luna, who for several years led Mexico’s fight against the country’s violent drug trade, was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 38 years in U.S. prison for accepting bribes from the cartels he was supposed to fight.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan announced the sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.

Prosecutors had urged a life sentence for Garcia Luna, 56, after he was convicted at trial in February 2023 for engaging in a criminal drug enterprise, taking part in various conspiracies and making false statements.

They said in a Sept. 19 court filing that Garcia Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel once led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as El Chapo, and in exchange shielded its members from arrest and protected its cocaine shipments.

In announcing the 460-month sentence, Cogan said Garcia Luna should have “some light at the end of the tunnel,” crediting him for his work teaching fellow inmates at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. But the judge said Garcia Luna lived a “double life,” with the harm he caused outweighing his good deeds.