The former security chief of Sinaloa in Mexico was arrested in the US for cooperating with the cartels | Corruption Issues

Gerardo Merida Sanchez was arrested in Arizona on May 11 before being extradited to New York.

Former security chief of Mexico’s Sinaloa state taken into U.S. custody on charges related to police killings The Sinaloa Cartelaccording to federal court records and unpublished reports late Thursday.

Gerardo Merida Sanchez, 66, who was Sinaloa’s secretary of public security from September 2023 to December 2024, was arrested in Arizona on May 11 before being extradited to New York.

He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Friday and is being held at a federal prison in Brooklyn.

Merida Sanchez is the former Governor of Sinaloa Ruben Rocha Both were indicted in an unsealed indictment in federal court in Manhattan on April 29, accusing them of conspiring with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to bring narcotics into the United States for political support and corruption.

According to the decision, US prosecutors said Merida Sanchez received more than $100,000 a month from bribes. Los Chapitosa powerful group led by the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was in prison, in order to protect the activities of the group.

Authorities say he used his position to protect the drug cartel by ordering police not to arrest members of Los Chapitos while they were fighting the gangs that were fighting them.

Prosecutors also accuse Merida Sanchez of leaking information to the cartel, including advance warning of investigations and organized gangs targeting drug centers and safe havens. Sometime in 2023, authorities said they warned the group ahead of 10 attacks, allowing cartel members to move workers, drugs and weapons before security forces arrived.

Cartel case intensifies US-Mexico political tensions

The case marked a major escalation in U.S. crackdowns on Mexico’s drug-trafficking industry, expanding ongoing investigations into organized crime groups including politicians accused of ties to drug-trafficking networks.

Rocha, a member of the Morena party of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, he denied the charges and said they were attacking the Mexican ruling class.

He he went down for a while on May 2, requesting a 30-day leave and saying that he did so with a “clear conscience”. Rocha said he would use the time to defend himself against what he called “false and malicious” and to cooperate with the Mexican government’s investigation into the matter. Yeraldine Bonilla Valverde was appointed interim ambassador.

Sheinbaum said on April 30 that his government does not protect anyone who has committed a crime, but said the US charges appear to be politically motivated.

“If there is no clear evidence, it is clear that the purpose of the allegations against the Ministry of Justice is political,” he said.

The latest developments also coincide with a major shift in US anti-drug policy under President Donald Trump. According to The New York TimesProsecutors this week were advised to consider using “laws related to terrorism” against Mexican officials who are said to be involved in the drug trade, which is expected to improve relations between Washington and Mexico City.

The newspaper reported that the order follows Trump’s decision earlier this year to designate a number of drug trafficking groups in Latin America as “criminal organizations”, one of the additional measures that have increased US military operations targeting people suspected of trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.