U.S. says Sinaloa Cartel relies on corrupt officials

Reporting and context

El Diario de Juárez reports that a U.S. State Department spokesman said the Sinaloa Cartel would be unable to operate without help from corrupt officials. The statement came in response to questions about Rubén Rocha Moya’s return to the Sinaloa governorship despite a criminal case filed in the Southern District of New York, according to the report. The spokesman did not directly discuss Rocha Moya’s case or provide additional details about the governor.

The report quotes the State Department as saying that the Sinaloa Cartel traffics deadly drugs into the United States and is designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. That is an official U.S. characterization, not an independent finding by Cartel Insider Wire. The spokesman’s comments were presented as a general reference to corruption and were not described as a new accusation against any specific official in the exchange reported by the newspaper.

El Diario de Juárez says the statement echoes a criminal prosecution against Rocha Moya and nine other current or former Sinaloa officials, which the report describes as the first such case against a sitting Mexican governor. The article does not establish the outcome of those allegations, and the U.S. statement did not expand on them. The report also says the Trump administration has designated eight Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, the United Cartels, the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras.