Former Sinaloa security secretary arrested in Arizona on drug trafficking charges

Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, former security secretary of Sinaloa, was arrested as part of a U.S. investigation related to alleged drug trafficking crimes. According to court documents made public Thursday, Sanchez turned himself in to authorities in Arizona and appeared before a judge in Tucson.

Sanchez, Sinaloa's secretary of security from 2023 to 2024, is on a list of ten people named in a case recently filed with the Southern District of New York's U.S. Attorney's Office. Specifically, authorities accuse him of conspiring with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to import large quantities of narcotics into the United States in exchange for political support and bribes.

As reported by Reuters, the indictment alleges that Mérida received bribes from the sons of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, co-founder of the currently imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel, in exchange for giving them advance notice of police raids on drug labs. The bribes reportedly amounted to $100,000 per month.

For example, within months of taking office, Merida allegedly warned the cartel of at least ten drug lab raids.

The investigation also includes Ruben Rocha, the governor of Sinaloa, who belongs to the same political party as Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Rocha stepped down from his post in early May as authorities pursued an investigation into his alleged involvement in the case. "I will not allow them to use me to damage the movement to which I belong," he declared.

During a speech, Rocha assured that the accusations in the United States are "false and malicious." "To my people and my family I can see them head on, because I have not betrayed them and I will never betray them. I will firmly demonstrate that at the moment that the institutions of justice require it," he added.