US Indicts Sinaloa Governor, 9 Officials in Cartel Case

United States prosecutors in New York indicted Ruben Rocha Moya, the governor of Mexico's Sinaloa state, and nine other current and former Mexican officials on charges of conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel to traffic drugs into the country. The charges, unsealed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, accuse the defendants of facilitating the importation of massive quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in exchange for bribes and political support.

According to the indictment, the officials, who include a state deputy attorney general, a Culiacan municipal police commander, a state senator and the mayor of Culiacan, Sinaloa's capital, abused their positions to shield cartel members from arrest, leak sensitive law enforcement information and direct police units to protect drug shipments moving toward the United States border. Prosecutors allege the defendants received millions of dollars from a faction of the cartel led by the sons of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, known as the Chapitos. Some defendants are accused of participating directly in cartel violence, including kidnappings and murders of suspected informants, such as a case in October 2023...