Sinaloa Governor’s Team Fears U.S. Extradition Amid Pressure

Culiacán, Sinaloa — Serious concerns are growing within the inner circle of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya as rumors gain strength about his potential extradition to the United States. This follows the Delta Force assault on Caracas and increased U.S. military presence in Mexico by land, air, and sea, along with public threats from former President Donald Trump.

In the National Palace, contrary to what is declared in the morning press conferences, concern is increasingly evident in the face of the White House’s insistent demand to hand over active politicians who work for Mexican organized crime.

“Mexico has to get its act together” because “the cartels are very strong” and “they are governing Mexico,” Trump said the day after the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, who is accused in U.S. courts of narco-terrorism. “We are going to have to do something with Mexico.”

Denials from President Claudia Sheinbaum about Trump’s request to arrest and send active members of her party to U.S. justice have been ineffective. The party is the most powerful as it holds the presidency and the majority in the three branches of the Union.

“Several are the names and several are the states where a North American military incursion would cause a deputy, a senator, a mayor, or even a Morena governor to wake up one day in a prison of the neighboring country to the north, handcuffed and wearing the typical orange jumpsuit,” the report states.

At least this version has grown in the Government Palace of Culiacán, where the closest circle of Governor Rubén Rocha Moya counts the days and hours before what they foresee as the agreed handover by the Presidential Security Cabinet and the White House, with Morena names being the first on the list requested by the State Department.

After pleading guilty in August last year to the crime of drug trafficking, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada awaits sentencing in a New York court. In a hearing scheduled for April 13, when his sentence will be declared, a possible collaboration with authorities to obtain greater benefits could be revealed.

This is what has Rocha Moya’s team at a crossroads, where they warn that the National Palace will fold under the DEA’s work to prosecute Mexican narco-politicians. “The governor has looked nervous for weeks, but with what happened in Venezuela, his demeanor worsened, now he has become more isolated,” one of the sources consulted by LPO in the Sinaloa Government Cabinet reported.

El Mayo Zambada himself, a few months into his stay in a North American jail, pointed out in a public letter his good relationship with the governor of Sinaloa, and even Rocha Moya’s participation in the homicide of Héctor Melesio Cuén, on the day and in the place where the Sinaloa Cartel capo was kidnapped by the son of El Chapo Guzmán.

Meanwhile, Rocha Moya can barely handle the governability of his state. This week he publicly argued with Coparmex over vehicle theft. The Morena governor assured that the employers’ confederation “exaggerates things” when warning of a rebound in this crime, as the figures show a stable and downward trend.

“Vehicle theft is not increasing. Coparmex tends to exaggerate these types of issues. We keep a daily record and, although today was one of the days with the lowest figures—though one swallow does not make a summer—the behavior we observe is that vehicle theft is declining. Sometimes it is said that this is the year with the most thefts, but that is not true; it is enough to review the statistics,” he said.