The US Says Sinaloa's Governor Partners With a Cartel. He's Back at His Desk Anyway.
The governor of Sinaloa — the Mexican state that gives its name to one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking organizations — has been accused by US prosecutors of ties to that cartel's kingpins. And rather than stepping aside, Rubén Rocha is back in office. That means the person the US alleges is a cartel partner is also the person nominally in charge of governing the cartel's home turf.
Bottom Line
A US indictment of a sitting Mexican governor is rare; that governor walking back into office is rarer still. The real story isn't the legal fight — it's that the alleged line between the Sinaloa cartel and the Sinaloa state government has, according to US prosecutors, blurred at the very top. Until that's resolved, meaningful US-Mexico security cooperation in the most consequential trafficking state in the hemisphere is effectively frozen.