Mexican federal prosecutors said Wednesday that begin investigation of Sinaloa state governor after United States indicts Ruben Rocha Moyo and other local officials on drug-trafficking charges. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
- Mexican federal prosecutors have launched an investigation into Sinaloa’s governor over drug-trafficking allegations.
- The American prosecutor’s office accuses Governor Rocha Moya of collaborating with the Sinaloa cartel.
- In New York, they accused ten people of distributing a huge amount of drugs.
- The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs will ask the US Embassy for an explanation of the public announcement of the indictment.
- Governor Rocha Moya categorically denies the allegations and claims a political attack on Morena.
US federal prosecutors accuse a local leader, a member of the Moreno ruling party, of association with the Sinaloa cartel, which is shaken by the fight between the two factions. In a video posted on social media, Mexican Attorney General Ulises Lara’s spokesman said that the office will investigate and determine whether “the accusation made by the US authorities has a legal basis”.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said that 10 people, including Gov. Ruben Rocha Moya, are accused of working with the Sinaloa cartel to distribute “huge amounts” of narcotics to the United States.
Without mentioning the indictment, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said that received US extradition requests for “various persons”. The department also countered that such cases are usually dealt with confidentially under bilateral treaties rather than being publicly announced first, saying that will send a note of protest to the US embassy “because of the way it was reported”.
The ministry said that Mexico’s attorney general’s office will decide whether to extradite Rocha Moya and other suspects to the United States. The governor himself in a statement on the X portal he “categorically and absolutely” denied the allegations of drug crime and declared that, according to him, it was an attack against Mexico’s ruling Moreno party, which has been in power since 2018 and is considered left-leaning, writes AFP.
Rocha Moya has been the governor of the conflict-ridden state of Sinaloa since 2021. The state is plagued by a war between two factions of the cartel of the same name, which has already claimed thousands of lives.
The governor has a long history of involvement in public life including the post of state congressman in the 1980s, director of the University of Sinaloa in the 1990s, adviser to two governors in 2000, and then state coordinator for the Moreno Party.
The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug-trafficking groups, which the administration of US President Donald Trump has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, AFP reminds.
