U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday announced charges against a Mexican governor and nine other current and former Mexican government or law enforcement officials, accusing them of conspiring with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to import drugs into the United States in exchange for political support.
The indictment in federal court in New York marks the Trump administration’s most aggressive push to date to investigate and prosecute Mexican actors — including government officials — as part of the president’s efforts to crack down on Mexico’s huge illegal drug market.
The governor, Rubén Rocha Moya of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, and the other defendants are accused of having partnered with the powerful Sinaloa Cartel to “distribute massive quantities of narcotics” in the U.S., according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement, said the charges “send a clear message to all officials around the globe who work with narco-traffickers: no matter your title or position, we are committed to bringing you to justice.”
“The Sinaloa Cartel is a ruthless criminal organization that has flooded this community with dangerous drugs for decades,” Clayton said. “As the indictment lays bare, the Sinaloa Cartel, and other drug trafficking organizations like it, would not operate as freely or successfully without corrupt politicians and law enforcement officials on their payroll.”
The Justice Department said all of the defendants are believed to be living in Mexico.
Sinaloa is a state deeply meshed with Mexico’s narcotrafficking world, and Rocha Moya has long faced scrutiny over potential connections to the cartel.
That scrutiny only grew after gunmen killed two boys and their father in early 2025, leading to mass protests against the governor’s leadership. Sinaloa residents demanded that he step down, accusing him of having ties to the cartel and prioritizing it over his constituents. Rocha Moya, however, has long denied having a connection to the cartel, telling reporters in October 2024 that he is “not a criminal,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
On Wednesday, Rocha Moya in a statement once again asserted his innocence, saying he “categorically and absolutely” rejects U.S. prosecutors’ charges, arguing that they “lack any truth or foundation.”
Rocha Moya, who is a member of Morena, the same party as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, said the indictment was an attack against him, as well as against his party’s leftist agenda and achievements.
“It is part of a perverse strategy to violate the constitutional order, specifically the national sovereignty advocated by Article 40 of Mexico’s Political Constitution, which our movement defends as an invariable and non-negotiable principle,” he said.
Sheinbaum’s administration, through its Office of Foreign Relations on Wednesday, said that it received an extradition order from the U.S. on Tuesday evening.
In a statement, the office said the U.S. order did not include “evidence” of the charges. It was unclear what steps the administration could take next.
According to the Justice Department’s indictment, unsealed Wednesday, the Sinaloa Cartel partnered with corrupt politicians and law enforcement officials, including the 10 defendants in Rocha Moya’s case, to carry out drug trafficking operations.
The defendants, the indictment alleges, exposed and subjected victims to threats and violence, and also received massive bribes from the cartel. According to the indictment, the defendants helped the cartel import fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines from Mexico into the U.S. The 10 current and former officials are also being accused of shielding cartel leaders from investigation and prosecution, and of allowing “brutal drug-related violence to be committed by members of the Cartel without consequence.”
In exchange, U.S. prosecutors allege, the defendants “collectively received millions of dollars in drug money from the Cartel.”
U.S. prosecutors are also accusing the defendants of being closely aligned with a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel run by the “Chapitos” — the sons of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, the notorious drug lord known as “El Chapo” who once led the cartel.
Alongside Rocha Moya, defendants also include Damaso Castro Zaavedra, the deputy attorney general for Sinaloa, and Juan Valenzuela Millan, a high-level commander in the Culiacan Municipal Police. Prosecutors accuse Millan of having participated in the kidnapping of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration source, which resulted in the person’s death, as well as of receiving a monthly payment from the “Chapitos” in exchange for unfettered access to the Culiacan Municipal Police.
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said in a statement Wednesday that the indictment “exposes a deliberate effort to undermine public institutions and put American lives at risk.”
“The defendants allegedly used positions of trust to protect cartel operations, enabling a pipeline of deadly drugs into our country,” Cole said. “No one is above the law.”
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