The US accuses the governor of Sinaloa of helping drug traffickers and Mexico resists his extradition

This Saturday, Governor Rocha Moya requested a “temporary” license to leave office and defend himself against the accusations coming from Donald Trump’s government. Rocha Moya, who denied the charges, He is the highest-ranking Mexican official charged in the US since 2020. The accusation puts President Sheinbaum in a difficult position, since the governor belongs to her party and the head of state must demonstrate to her followers that she will not easily give in to American demands, while assuring an impatient White House that she is a committed ally in the fight against drug trafficking.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced Wednesday the opening of an indictment against Rocha Moya, 76, and nine other officials, who are accused of helping the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico into the US. According to prosecutors, leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel supported Rocha Moya for his election by kidnapping and intimidating rivals, in exchange for his promise to protect them while they distributed drugs in the US.

The indictment alleges that the officials were closely linked to the faction of that cartel known as “Los Chapitos,” led by the children of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the former leader of the drug group who is currently serving a life sentence in a US prison.

Mexico recognized on Wednesday that the United States had requested the extradition of certain people and on Friday the Attorney General’s Office rejected the claim, alleging that there were no reasons or foundations for the urgency of the measure. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that the Attorney General’s Office would review the request.

“It is a decisive moment because it is a formal accusation from the Department of Justice, which has political repercussions. It reflects what was previously just a rumor: that the ruling party is not exempt from the infiltration of organized crime in its ranks,” said Rodrigo Villegas, executive director of the risk consulting firm Suass Group, based in Mexico City.

Rocha Moya stated in a publication in X that the US accusations They lack “all truth or foundation”, and described the prosecutors’ action as an attack on the ruling party. The mayor of Culiacán, the ruling party Juan de Dios Gámez, is also accused. Another acting senator charged in the case, Enrique Inzunza, published in X that the accusations are false.

The United States has threatened Mexico with tariffs and military intervention if it does not take sufficient measures to combat organized crime. Both countries are in the process of reviewing the North American free trade agreement that they share with Canada.

“The Trump administration has prioritized breaking the link between crime and politics in Mexico and has put strong pressure on the Mexican government from the beginning,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “This does not mean the end of American accusations.”

The new clash with the United States puts President Sheinbaum at a “turning point” in the bilateral relationship, Andrés Sumano, a researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, warned EFE this Saturday. According to this researcher, there are three possible scenarios for the head of state: “shelter in and protect” that group of politicians – which “is what she seems to be doing,” he said; deliver them to the United States or initiate proceedings against them in Mexico.

“This last one seems to me so far to be the best option of all the options it has, but it will obviously imply ruptures within the ruling party Morena,” he noted, since the extradition request against Rocha Moya generates “problems in every sense” for Mexico by hitting the government party and its cooperation strategy with the White House.

In addition, it is a “challenge” for Mexico’s security policy, which had recently had “very notable” results such as the dejection of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), El Mencho, and the arrest last week of his supposed successor.

For now, he sees that the president has chosen to “buy time” by reiterating that evidence is needed and referring to what the Public Ministry decides, although there will come a time when “the deadlines” will expire, as well as the “patience” of the US Administration.

In the hypothetical case that Mexico chooses not to hand over the governor of Sinaloa, researcher Sumano warned that this would open the door to various retaliation by the US government. From economic “pressures” to the “most extreme case”: that Washington intervenes by sending the military to “take away” the politician, something that the professor at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte sees as very unlikely.

At the national level, the whole new clash with the United States justice represents an additional challenge, as political parties begin to prepare for the 2027 midterm elections, which include seats in Congress and governorships, several of them in states bordering the United States.

The arrest of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, leader of a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, in 2024 unleashed a bloody war between cartels that has left more than 2,400 dead so far. Sheinbaum has pledged to address the high homicide rate in Sinaloa, but violent episodes have continued this year.