Mexican Sinaloa security official Gerardo Mérida Sánchez appears in Manhattan court

A former top security official in Mexico’s Sinaloa state appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Friday, days after being taken into U.S. custody in Arizona on federal charges that he and other officials took bribes to help the Sinaloa Cartel traffic drugs into the United States.

Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, 66, did not enter a plea during his initial appearance, according to court records. The judge ordered him jailed while allowing him to request bail later. He is scheduled to return to court on June 1. Federal authorities said he entered the United States from Hermosillo, Sonora, and was detained at the Nogales border crossing in Arizona by U.S. Marshals before being transferred to New York. He was being held in a federal detention facility in Brooklyn, records showed.

Mérida Sánchez is the first of 10 current and former Sinaloa officials named in a U.S. indictment last month to appear in court. Prosecutors accuse him of involvement in a conspiracy to import narcotics and of related weapons offenses, including charges tied to machine guns and destructive devices. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years to life in prison.

Before his resignation in December 2024, Mérida Sánchez...