Probe alleging 'El Chapo' sons fed victims to tigers led to case against top Mexican politician: court docs

piece the Mexican authorities insists it needs thomas more trial impression before playacting on a U.S. Request to hand over the former governor of Sinaloa, court records suggest the case against Rubén Rocha stems from a sprawling investigation into the sons of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday again said the government would make no move against Rocha, a member of the ruling party, until the U.S. Handed over concrete proof backing allegations the politician struck a deal with the Sinaloa cartel to get elected in 2021. 

"We do not protect anyone, absolutely no one. If there is evidence, then go forward," said Sheinbaum. 

"But there needs to be proof."

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York released an indictment April 29 naming Rocha, the mayor of the state capital of Culiacan, a sitting Mexican senator, the state's deputy attorney general and six other former law enforcement officials and officers. 

The indictment alleges Rocha handed over parts of the state security apparatus for use by the sons of El Chapo in exchange for their muscle in the lead up to the 2021 governorship election. 

The U.S. Is seeking Rocha's extradition.

The news sent reverberations throughout the Mexican political establishment. It was the first time the U.S. Had indicted a Mexican senior elected sitting politician. 

Rocha, a member of the governing National Regeneration Movement party (Morena), was also seen as close to the party's founder and former Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador — Sheinbaum's predecessor. 

Rocha stepped down from the governorship on May 1. 

The case against Rocha evolved from a sprawling investigation begun years earlier targeting the Sinaloa cartel's massive fentanyl operations, U.S. Court records show. 

"I have the impression that the evidence [in the Rocha case] was born of evidence they had against the Chapitos," said Victoria Dittmar, researcher with InSight Crime, an investigative think-tank. 

"It seems to me that there are many elements in the Rocha case that could only have come from statements. Someone collaborated and someone provided very specific details."

The Rocha indictment was filed with the U.S. Federal court as part of a sprawling, years-long case against two of El Chapo’s sons who remain at large — Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar. 

The court case docket for Rocha and the Guzmán Salazar brothers share the same file number and case name — U.S.A. Vs. Guzmán Salazar.

The sons of El Chapo are known as "Los Chapitos" and lead the Sinaloa cartel faction known as "La Chapiza."

El Chapo and two of his sons, Ovidio Guzmán López and Joaquín Guzmán López, are in U.S. Custody. El Chapo is serving a life sentence following a conviction and his two sons have pleaded guilty to U.S. Charges under plea agreements and are awaiting sentencing.

The April 2023 indictment against the two fugitive Chapitos alleged they fed "some of their victims, dead and alive" to tigers they kept as pets. The document also outlined the international machinery used by the Sinaloa cartel to manufacture and smuggle fentanyl into the U.S. 

The indictment names individuals connected to Chinese companies who allegedly sold precursor chemicals, and provided the recipe, used to manufacture fentanyl in Mexico which would then be smuggled north across the border.

"The [Sinaloa] cartel is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the United States over the past approximately eight years and for the accompanying violence and deaths that have afflicted communities on both sides of the border," said the 2023 indictment against the fugitive Chapitos.

The 2023 indictment and the Rocha charge document share a photograph and similar wording around an August 2019 bust that netted 41.2 kg of fentanyl powder and 630,000 fentanyl pills in a Phoenix stash house. 

The 2023 indictment also states that the Sinaloa cartel "relies on corruption, including cash bribe payments, to maintain the security of its operations and its leadership."

The Rocha document includes an image of a hand-written ledger that U.S. Authorities allege itemize bribes to Sinaloan law enforcement.

The fugitive Chapitos have been waging a civil war for over 18 months against a faction known as La Mayiza that is loyal to the son of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who once co-led the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo. 

The cartel war, which has left more than 5,000 dead and disappeared across Sinaloa, began after Joaquín Guzmán López lured El Mayo to a meeting at a ranch on the outskirts of Culiacan in July 2024. El Mayo was kidnapped, put on a plane and flown north across the border. Guzmán López surrended to U.S. Authorities as he handed over El Mayo. 

El Mayo later claimed in a letter released by his U.S. Lawyer that he was invited to the ranch under the pretext of a meeting involving Rocha and the former governor's political opponent Héctor Melesio Cuén, a former mayor of Culiacán and founder of a regional political party.

The letter said that Cuén was murdered at the same time El Mayo was kidnapped. The Sinaloa state Attorney General's Office initially claimed Cuén had been killed during a carjacking at a gas station. 

"There are other examples to sustain that there is a problem of corruption in the state, of collusion between criminal groups and government forces," said David Mora, a senior Mexico analyst with International Crisis Group, an organization which investigates global conflicts.

"It is not only about the specific moment that the U.S. Is indicting Rocha."

Security Secretary Omar Hafruch has said that a cell aligned with Los Chapitos was responsible for the kidnapping of 10 workers with Canadian mining company Vizsla Silver. The bodies of nine of the 10 workers have so far been identified. 

Reporter

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