Mexico City — Retired General Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, the former public security secretary of Sinaloa, surrendered to US authorities on May 11 by crossing into Arizona through the Nogales port of entry, Mexico’s Security Cabinet confirmed Thursday.
The announcement corrected earlier unofficial reports that the surrender had occurred at the Otay Mesa crossing between Tijuana and San Diego. Mérida Sánchez is now in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, the same facility holding Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In a brief statement on X, the Security Cabinet — comprising the Navy, Defense, and Public Security secretariats — said Mérida Sánchez “entered the United States from Hermosillo, Sonora, on May 11, and crossed through the Nogales port of entry into Arizona,” where he was taken into custody by the US Marshals Service.
The cabinet added that it and the Foreign Ministry have established “institutional communication with US authorities within the framework of international cooperation mechanisms.”
Mérida Sánchez is one of 10 individuals from Sinaloa wanted by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on charges related to alleged ties to Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar. He is accused of receiving $100,000 monthly bribes from Los Chapitos in exchange for tipping them off about law enforcement raids and refraining from arresting cartel members.
Court documents from the US District Court in Tucson, Arizona, dated May 12, show Mérida Sánchez appeared before federal Judge Eric J. Markovich, who ordered his transfer to the Southern District of New York. The charges include conspiracy to import narcotics, possession of firearms and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess firearms and destructive devices.
During the hearing, federal public defender Jordan Malka was appointed as his attorney. The judge issued a “transportation order” to be executed promptly.
Mérida Sánchez served as Sinaloa’s public security secretary from September 2023 to December 2024 under Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who is also among those wanted by US authorities. The US indictment and arrest warrant were made public on April 27, when it emerged that Washington had requested Mexico’s provisional detention of Mérida Sánchez and nine others for extradition purposes.
Mexico has asked the US Department of Justice to provide evidence supporting the charges before proceeding with extradition requests. However, the voluntary surrender of Mérida Sánchez and former Sinaloa finance secretary Enrique Díaz Vega — accused of acting as a liaison to involve Los Chapitos in the 2021 gubernatorial election — has undercut the Mexican government’s narrative, according to local media.
