US investigation of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya stems directly from Los Chapitos case
Two leaders of this faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán, have already been arrested and are cooperating as witnesses for US authorities
The allegations that Mexican politician Rubén Rocha Moya collaborated with the Sinaloa Cartel — an unprecedented case involving a sitting governor that is straining relations between the two countries to an as-yet-unknown degree — stems directly from the criminal case against Los Chapitos. This faction of the criminal organization, comprised of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons and their loyalists, has been on trial in the United States since April 2023. The 10 individuals indicted last week — Rocha Moya, Senator Enrique Inzunza Cázerez, and a significant portion of Sinaloa’s security apparatus — share the case with brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, who remain at large, and 24 other individuals linked to the group, who are accused of providing political protection in exchange for money and electoral victories.
The case in the Southern District Court of New York, United States v. Guzmán Salazar, began on April 4, 2023. In addition to El Chapo’s two sons, other prominent defendants include the now-deceased Óscar Noé Medina González, alias “El Panu,” one of Iván Archivaldo’s top lieutenants; Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, alias “El Nini” or “El 09,” the faction’s head of security and the last person extradited during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency; and Kun Jiang, a Chinese businessman accused of being a major supplier of chemical precursors used by the criminal organization to manufacture fentanyl. The charges are varied but include organized crime, money laundering, and fentanyl trafficking.
The expanded charges against Rocha Moya, Inzunza Cázerez, and other officials and employees of the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office were filed on April 29, the same day the U.S. Department of Justice made the indictment public. “While certain of the defendants have worked with a variety of narco-traffickers, the defendants generally have been most closely aligned with one faction of the cartel, referred to herein as the ‘Chapitos.’ Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, and Ovidio Guzmán López, collectively referred to herein as the ‘Chapitos Leaders,’” the document reads.
The indictment against Rocha Moya and the other public officials describes several meetings, such as the one held between Iván Archivaldo, Ovidio, and Rocha Moya during his 2021 gubernatorial campaign, in which they allegedly promised to ensure his victory in exchange for placing cartel-affiliated officials in the state administration; the meeting between Enrique Díaz Vega, who later became Sinaloa’s secretary of administration and finance, and Iván Archivaldo, Jesús Alfredo, and other high-ranking cartel members to deliver a list with the names and addresses of Rocha Moya’s political opponents; and a post-election meeting between the governor-elect and Inzunza Cázarez with leaders of Los Chapitos to agree on how the cartel would gain control of the Sinaloa State Police in exchange for the support received during the campaign, among others.
The document is a formal indictment before a United States grand jury, a group of randomly selected citizens who are presented with a case to decide if there is probable cause to begin a trial, as has happened with Rocha Moya and the rest of the defendants.
One of the most controversial aspects of this judicial system is that of cooperating witnesses, essentially individuals, often criminals, who cooperate with law enforcement by providing key information about their organizations and associates in exchange for legal benefits such as reduced sentences or family relocations. This type of testimony, along with financial analyses, was fundamental evidence in the conviction of Genaro García Luna, former secretary of public security during the administration of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), who was also accused of protecting the Sinaloa Cartel.
In the case of Los Chapitos, it is public knowledge that two of their leaders have embraced this practice. Ovidio Guzmán López pleaded guilty in July 2025 in a Chicago court, where his indictment was filed, two months after at least 17 of El Chapo Guzmán’s relatives surrendered to U.S. authorities at the border, in what was said to be part of a cooperation and protection agreement with Guzmán López. A year earlier, Joaquín Guzmán López, his brother, had surrendered to the United States with a gift: Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, El Chapo’s former partner. This betrayal led to the civil war within the Sinaloa Cartel that has ravaged the state for over a year and a half.
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