Mexico City – The US indictment against the governor of Sinaloa and nine other Mexican officials for alleged links to drug trafficking has exposed the limit of a tacit agreement: Washington requested extradition, Mexico delivered. But for the first time, the US is targeting a sitting political cadre from the ruling party. This in the midst of the renegotiation of the T-MEC. The decision that Claudia Sheinbaum makes, in any direction, will have a high political cost.

First modification: 05/02/2026 - 21:38 Last modification: 05/03/2026 - 00:14

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The journalists run towards the vehicle. The governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, is calm and anticipates the question before anyone asks it. "We are calm; working for Sinaloa, nothing is going to happen," said the leader of the Morena party (left, pro-government) on April 30, just one day after the United States Department of Justice included him, along with nine other current and former Mexican officials, in a formal accusation for drug trafficking, possession of weapons and conspiracy with a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Previously, in an interview with a national media in Culiacán, Rocha Moya claimed to have discussed the issue with President Claudia Sheinbaum and had her support, although she avoided any details of the conversation.

—Have you already spoken with the president? —Yes, now, I have nothing more to say...

—What can these accusations be attributed to, Governor? —I'm not going to testify anymore.

—Would you be meeting with the president? —Well, it's very likely.

—Is there support from her? -Yes of course.

The governor first assured that he would remain in the state. "Working here, coming and going, going to do my day job as governor." However, on Friday he announced that he requested “temporary leave” from his position to face the investigation.

Along with Rocha Moya, nine other current and former officials were included in the indictment for drug and weapons trafficking crimes. All linked, according to the Department of Justice, to "Los Chapitos", the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the children of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and that operates in Sinaloa and other entities in the country. The case was presented in the federal court of the Southern District of New York and was left in the hands of Judge Katherine Polk Failla.

Read alsoGovernor of Sinaloa leaves office to face accusations of drug trafficking in the United States

"They are accused of having associated with the Sinaloa Cartel to distribute massive quantities of narcotics to the United States," the Justice Department said in its statement. Federal Prosecutor Jay Clayton, who is leading the case, went further in describing the scope of the scheme: "The Sinaloa Cartel is a ruthless criminal organization that has flooded this community with dangerous drugs for decades." He added: "As the indictment demonstrates, the Sinaloa Cartel, and other similar drug trafficking organizations, would not operate as freely or successfully without corrupt paid politicians and law enforcement officials."

The accusation comes at a time of maximum bilateral tension. Washington demands the extradition of the ten men; Sheinbaum conditions her. The president closed ranks with the governor of her party and hardened her tone towards the United States, in a week in which the ruling party was still processing a parallel scandal: the death of two CIA agents in a covert operation without federal authorization in Chihuahua, where the opposition governor, María Eugenia Campos, faces a request for impeachment for alleged treason.

In his morning conference on May 1, Sheinbaum repeated: "In the face of the external onslaught, there must be national unity." The president had drawn the line the day before:

"If there is no clear evidence, it is clear that the objective of these accusations by the Department of Justice is political."

He called for waiting for what the Attorney General's Office of the Republic finds and made any extradition subject to the result of that investigation. "Under no reason are we going to allow the interference of a foreign government," he concluded.

The president insisted on an idea that she has been repeating since the beginning of the case: "We are not going to cover anyone who has committed a crime." But he immediately returned to the framework of interference, in reference to the US request that is framed in the bilateral extradition treaty.

Read alsoGovernor of Sinaloa requests leave after US accusations for alleged links to drug trafficking

Mexico demands evidence

The Attorney General's Office supported the presidential position. On the afternoon of May 1, at a press conference, Raúl Jiménez Vázquez, head of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Competition Control, maintained that there are no elements to order the provisional arrest (for extradition purposes) of the ten indicated.

The measure, he explained, implies a restriction on Human Rights and only applies when there is solid evidentiary support and national and international legal foundations that justify it.

"In the request (for arrest and extradition) that concerns us there is no reference, there is no reason, there is no basis, there is no evidence that allows us to appreciate the reason for the urgency, for the provisional detention," said Jiménez Vázquez. With this, any action against those involved – including those who do not have immunity – is conditional, according to the institution, on Washington providing evidence, testimonies or other elements that support the accusations.

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Along with Rocha Moya is Enrique Inzunza Cázares, Morenoist senator and former secretary general of Sinaloa; the mayor of Culiacán, Juan de Dios Gámez; the deputy state prosecutor, Dámaso Castro Saavedra; and the former Secretary of Public Security of the state, Gerardo Mérida Sánchez.

The list is completed by former heads of the Investigative Police—Marco Antonio Almanza Avilés and Alberto Jorge Contreras Núñez, alias Cholo—, the former deputy director of the State Police José Antonio Dionisio Hipólito, alias Tornado, the former Secretary of Administration and Finance Enrique Díaz Vega, and a former commander of the Municipal Police of Culiacán, Juan Valenzuela Millán, alias Juanito.

Read alsoMexico asks for "irrefutable" evidence in the case of the governor accused of drug trafficking by the US

Can Mexico deny extradition?

At this stage of the process, Mexico does not have the power to thoroughly evaluate the file, experts say. 'Mexico does not have to decide whether they are responsible or not responsible,' clarifies Virdzhiniya Petrova Georgieva, an academic in the Department of Law at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

"In the provisional arrest order, the United States only has to say what crime it intends to accuse the named people of, but it is not even obliged to present evidence yet," says the academic.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must only verify that there is sufficient evidence to begin the trial on US territory, he assures. An in-depth assessment would only proceed if Mexico decided not to extradite and judge internally.

“There is a provision in the treaty that allows the president not to extradite a person accused of a crime in the United States if he is Mexican, but if they decide not to extradite him, there is a general principle of international law that it is either extradite or you judge,” Petrova said.

He adds that in the "extradition treaty the term national sovereignty is not mentioned anywhere," when commenting on the references of the Mexican Government.

The reasons for denying extradition - it lists - are legal and specific: that the person may face the death penalty in the requesting country or that they are persecuted for a political crime. None refers to sovereignty. This appeal, the jurist maintains, "is somewhat part of the political context of the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States. It does not have much of a legal basis in the treaty."

Rocha Moya's name had already resonated in July 2024, when Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, co-founder of the cartel, was transferred against his will to the United States by a rival faction and handed over to the authorities. In a letter that was circulated after his arrest, Zambada stated that on the morning of his capture he thought he was going to a meeting with the governor. The scandal was then contained. His sentencing, scheduled for May 18, could add new elements to the current file.

Read alsoCitizens react to the US indictment of the governor of Sinaloa for drug trafficking

Beyond the diplomatic note

Before being presented in federal court, the case went through the filter of a grand jury, a body that evaluates whether the investigation has sufficient support to escalate. "That obviously gives greater strength to the United States' request," says Erubiel Tirado, a security specialist.

For the internationalist Arlene Ramírez Uresti, the weight of this situation must be read on two simultaneous levels. On the one hand, the procedural: "For this request to have been released, there is an entire file and evidence that can be released in the next 60 days." On the other hand, the geopolitical. The United States is preparing for midterm elections in November and Mexico is risking the renegotiation of the T-MEC.

"The issue here is that not properly prosecuting in Mexico, under the framework, of course, of due process and the laws, would be to agree with President Trump and the United States. In other words, there would be an implicit acceptance of guilt," Ramírez explained.

Part of the debate revolves around a narrative that, according to Ramírez, would be drawing conclusions before all the available information is known. “We are assuming that they do not exist because that is the narrative of the Government of Mexico,” warns the expert, who considers that this position responds to an attempt by Sheinbaum to “lower the intensity of speculation.”

Tirado adds that American action no longer follows a single track. From the first day of his second term, Trump classified Mexican criminal organizations as terrorist groups, a decision that opened room for unilateral actions beyond formal cooperation frameworks. And he assures that the operation against Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada in Mexican territory already showed that second lane in operation, as well as the recent incident with the CIA agents.

Read alsoTrump toughens his speech: pressure and threats on the Mexico - US border.

The internal fracture that is not named

The accusation against Rocha Moya and a Morenoist senator does not reach just any party. He arrives at the party in power, in the process of defining its own face under the leadership of Sheinbaum, and reopens a tension that the ruling party has tried to contain since the first day of the six-year term.

Erubiel Tirado describes the dilemma. On the one hand, the president faces external pressure: to please the demands of Donald Trump's government. On the other hand, internal pressure from a hardline sector of their own movement. "The president has had a hard time, let's say, promoting decisions that are already part of her government, not the past agenda," explains the analyst.

Arlene Ramírez Uresti proposes a solution that involves the political risk calculated in the case of Rocha. "What I would do is immediately promote the lifting of immunity so that then, with all certainty and all neutrality, the investigation could be carried out," he maintains.

The procedure, he explains, would offer three simultaneous advantages: adherence to the Vienna Convention and the 1978 Extradition Treaty, public demonstration of cooperation and, above all, the possibility of processing the case under national jurisdiction without ceding sovereignty or exposing oneself to unilateral intervention. "Today what Mexico is losing is not only certainty internally, it is certainty externally," he warns.

But the violation in Mexico requires the vote of both chambers, today under majority control of Morena and allies. "The composition of the chambers means that checks and balances are lost in issues as circumstantial as this," acknowledges Ramírez Uresti.

Until this request, the logic of cooperation without interference had worked without problems. Under that umbrella, Mexico handed over 92 alleged drug trafficking bosses in operations that were interpreted as gestures of good will toward Washington. The request to arrest a sitting governor, however, moves that balance. These are no longer organized crime figures, but rather an active political cadre of the ruling party. The questions become strategic: what can Mexico offer now that does not compromise the ruling party and how far is Donald Trump willing to go if the answer is negative?

"If Mexico decides to protect, it is very difficult to distinguish who it is protecting, whether sovereignty or Rubén Rocha Moya and his collaborators. That is the dilemma. How to protect sovereignty, but without protecting a probable criminal," says Petrova. And he adds a reminder that is no longer part of the hypothetical: "The United States had also said on several occasions that drug trafficking is terrorism and that it may intervene in Mexico to help. With Mayo Zambada, they came for him," he concluded.

Read alsoA “marriage without divorce”: the paradox of the relationship between Mexico and the US.

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