MEXICO CITY — The Trump administration launched a bombshell offensive Wednesday against Mexican government officials accused of complicity with the notorious Sinaloa cartel, unsealing federal indictments against the sitting governor, a federal senator and eight other current and former Mexican officials in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
The sprawling, 34-page indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, outlines an alleged pattern of bribes, murders, kidnappings and other crimes linked to high-ranking lawmakers and security chiefs.
The indictment paints a devastating picture of an outlaw state at the service of the Sinaloa cartel — the multibillion-dollar syndicate co-founded by the infamous Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, now serving a life sentence in the United States.
“The support of corrupt foreign officials for deadly trafficking of drugs must end,” declared U.S. Atty. Jay Clayton. “Let these charges send a message to all officials around the globe who work with narco-traffickers: No matter your title of position, we are committed to bringing you to justice.”
Atop the list of those charged with narcotics and gun charges — and potentially facing life in prison — is Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, 76, who immediately declared that he “categorically rejected” the allegations, which he labeled an effort to violate “national sovereignty” and undermine the Mexican government.
“This attack isn’t just against me,” Rocha Moya said on X, calling the charges “a perverse strategy to violate the constitutional order” of Mexico.
Although U.S. prosecutors have previously charged former Mexican governors with links to organized crime, this appeared to be the first instance in which the Justice Department indicted a sitting Mexican governor.
The indictment set off a political earthquake in Mexico and poses a major dilemma for the ruling Morena party, whose founder, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, rose to power on a promise to fight entrenched corruption. He is the mentor of President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Critics have blamed both Sheinbaum and López Obrador for carrying out few high-level prosecutions for graft and for weakening watchdog institutions charged with rooting out corruption.
Rocha Moya and others charged are members of the Morena bloc.
Rocha Moya is a longtime ally of López Obrador, an association that has led observers in Mexico to speculate that their friendship shielded him from prosecution, despite long-rumored links to the Sinaloa cartel.
All of those charged were accused of working in cahoots with a faction of the Sinaloa cartel known as “Los Chapitos,” named after the sons of El Chapo.
The indictment said the Chapitos helped elect Rocha Moya in 2021 by stealing ballots and forcing opposition candidates to drop out of the race. It accused Rocha Moya of installing cartel-friendly officials throughout the government who allowed the cartel to smuggle “massive amounts” of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S. in exchange for “millions” in bribes.
Also charged was Sen. Enrique Inzunza Cázarez. Like Rocha Moya, he denied the allegations and called them an attack on Mexican sovereignty.
The indictment also named Juan de Díos Gámez Mendívil, the mayor of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa.
Two of El Chapo’s sons — Ovidio Guzmán López and Joaquín Guzmán López — are in U.S. custody, facing drug smuggling and other charges. The two are widely reported to be cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in exchange for leniency.
But Mexican authorities confirmed last year that about 17 relatives of El Chapo — including his ex-wife — crossed from Tijuana into San Diego under U.S. protection as part of an apparent deal with prosecutors.
The indictment presents a detailed and devastating narrative of how, for years, officials in Sinaloa have allegedly worked hand in hand with mobsters, enriching themselves and allowing the gang to operate with seeming impunity.
Each month, the indictment says, a member of the Chapitos gang responsible for overseeing operations in Culiacán received a box stuffed with a large amount of cash, along with a list of corrupt officials who were supposed to receive the payoffs.
Included in the indictment are photographs of the alleged bribe lists, including one that said that Alberto Jorge Contreras Núñez, a former top prosecutor in the Sinaloa state attorney general’s office tasked with coordinating criminal investigations, was supposed to receive $300,000 monthly.
Also named were several of the state’s highest-ranking law enforcement officials, including Dámaso Castro Zaavedra, Sinaloa’s deputy attorney general, who is accused of giving the Chapitos advanced warning of police operations; and Contreras Núñez, who is accused of helping the Chapitos track down their enemies and ordering the release of arrested cartel members.
The indictment accused a Culiacán police commander, Juan Valencia, of helping the Chapitos kidnap an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration along with relatives of the informant, “some of whom the Chapitos then had tortured and killed.”
U.S. authorities appeared to be seeking the arrest and extradition to the United States of the governor and others charged in the indictment, according to a statement from Mexico’s foreign ministry. Mexican authorities said officials were reviewing extradition requests from Washington.
The extradition request, the Mexican government said, didn’t include “proof to be able to determine the responsibility” of those accused.
The slew of allegations immediately signals a fresh bilateral crisis for Sheinbaum at a delicate moment — the eve of the formal kickoff of negotiations to review the joint free-trade agreement among Mexico, the United States and Canada, a pact that is crucial to Mexico’s export-dominated economy.
President Trump’s negotiating team is widely expected to press for more trade concessions from Mexico during the upcoming talks.
Sheinbaum has endeavored to appease Trump’s constant demands for more action against Mexican-based drug smuggling cartels that the U.S. administration has branded foreign terrorist organizations. Her government has handed over scores of cartel suspects to the United States, arrested hundreds of other cartel operatives and busted numerous illicit drug laboratories, among other steps.
But critics say Sheinbaum’s government has resisted taking steps against corrupt politicians linked to the ruling party. There was no immediate reaction Thursday from Sheinbaum.
In February, Mexican authorities killed one of the nation’s major drug kingpins, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” during a raid at his mountain hideout. U.S. authorities provided intelligence but did not assist directly in the raid, Sheinbaum said.
But Trump, who has asserted that “the cartels are running Mexico,” says much more must be done. He has repeatedly threatened U.S. military intervention against drug traffickers in Mexico.
Sheinbaum has resisted Trump’s demand for direct U.S. action, saying it would violate Mexican sovereignty.
McDonnell and Linthicum are Times staff writers and Fischer is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report. This article was co-published with Puente News Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers stories from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border.
