The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the unsealing of an indictment charging 10 former and current Mexican officials, including a state governor, with drug trafficking and related weapons offenses.

The officials are alleged to have “conspired with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to import massive quantities of narcotics into the United States in exchange for political support and bribes,” the DOJ said in an April 29 statement.

One of the indicted individuals is Ruben Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa state.

The remaining nine are current or former high-ranking government and law enforcement officials in the state. One of the defendants is facing additional charges for allegedly participating in the kidnapping of a Drug Enforcement Administration source and the source’s relative, which ended in their deaths.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of the “most violent criminal organizations” in the world and has turned the Sinaloa state into a “geographic epicenter of the global narcotics trade,” the DOJ said.

“From its home base in Sinaloa, the Cartel has worked with criminal elements around the world—cocaine producers and distributors in Colombia and Venezuela, drug traffickers and corrupt politicians throughout Central and South America, and precursor chemical manufacturers in China and elsewhere—to distribute massive quantities of narcotics into the United States and inflict severe damage on communities throughout this country,” it said.

“To protect and grow this drug trafficking empire, the Cartel has allegedly partnered with corrupt politicians and law enforcement officials, including the defendants, who have abused their authority in support of the Cartel, exposed and subjected victims to threats and violence, and sold out their offices in exchange for massive bribes.”

Each defendant has allegedly taken part in a corrupt and violent drug trafficking conspiracy with the Sinaloa cartel to export “massive amounts” of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the United States from Mexico, according to the department.

The DOJ accused the defendants of shielding cartel leaders from investigation, arrest, and prosecution; using law enforcement agencies to protect drug loads stored in and transiting via Mexico into the United States; and providing the cartel with sensitive law enforcement and military information to help them with criminal activities, among other things. In return, the defendants allegedly received millions of dollars from the cartel.

Rocha Moya is alleged to have allowed “Chapitos,” a faction of the Sinaloa cartel run by the sons of the group’s former leader, to “operate with impunity” in the state. The Chapitos allegedly helped Rocha Moya get elected as governor through various measures, including kidnapping and intimidating his rivals. In exchange, Rocha Moya attended meetings with Chapitos, where he pledged to support the faction as they distributed drugs in the United States, the DOJ said.

The unsealing of the indictment was announced by Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

In an April 30 post on X, Rocha Moya defended himself against the accusations.

“I categorically and absolutely reject the accusations made against me by the Southern District of New York Federal Prosecutor’s Office, as they lack any truth or foundation whatsoever. And this will be demonstrated, with full force, at the appropriate time,” the Sinaloa governor wrote.

“To the people of Sinaloa, I say that, with the courage and dignity that characterize us, we will demonstrate the lack of foundation for this slander.”

“I offered to get rid of the cartels in Mexico, and for some reason, she doesn’t want to do that,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on March 13.

“I like her very much. But she should get rid of the cartels because, the cartels are, whether we like it or not, the cartels are running Mexico. We can’t have that.”

The agents died in a car crash on April 19 along with two Mexican officials, while they were on their way back home from an operation targeting drug laboratories in the city of Chihuahua. On April 22, Sheinbaum said she was considering potential sanctions against Chihuahua for allowing CIA agents to take part in a local operation to dismantle drug labs.

According to a 2025 report from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexican cartels’ drug trade presents a “dire threat to public health, the rule of law, and national security in the United States.”

Cartels such as Sinaloa and CJNG remain the “dominant threats” for the trafficking of drugs into America, the report said.

The cartels maintain steady supply chains to procure precursor chemicals for their drugs from places such as China and India. Precursor chemicals are necessary to manufacture synthetic drugs. Sinaloa and CJNG have distribution hubs in key U.S. cities and work with American drug trafficking organizations and violent gangs to sell drugs throughout the United States.