The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is reviewing the investigation into the alleged drug-related election in the state of Sinaloa in 2021. According to reports, the Sinaloa Cartel operated in favor of candidate Rubén Rocha Moya, now the governor on leave, after being accused by the United States of having ties to drug trafficking, federal government sources revealed.
In addition, the FGR has also begun reviewing the investigation into the murder of Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda, the former rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. The administration of Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero found evidence that the former rector was murdered in the house where drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was kidnapped on July 25, 2024. Zambada claimed that Rocha Moya was also present at that meeting.
The sources consulted emphasized that two years after El Mayo’s complaint, Rubén Rocha has not been summoned to testify, not even as a witness.
They said that the United States government has yet to deliver information to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), in which it alleges that the governor on leave has ties to organized crime, as well as nine current and former Sinaloa officials, who also have not been summoned.
A few weeks ago, the United States announced that the Sinaloa government is controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel, particularly the faction led by the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo, and therefore requested the provisional arrest of Rocha Moya and several current and former state and municipal officials for allegedly receiving millions of dollars in bribes to allow Los Chapitos to operate with impunity in their territory.
The case investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Federal Court of Manhattan, New York, alleges that Rubén Rocha came to power in the state of Sinaloa in 2021 thanks to the support of Iván and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Ovidio Guzmán López, leaders of the Los Chapitos criminal faction, and that, from then on, Rocha’s loyalty remained with El Chapo’s sons.
“In exchange, before and after becoming governor, Rocha Moya allegedly participated in meetings with Los Chapitos, in which he promised to protect them while they distributed massive quantities of drugs in the United States, and as governor, Rocha Moya has allowed Los Chapitos to operate with impunity in Sinaloa,”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in June 2021, Rocha Moya met with Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Ovidio Guzmán López to secure and confirm their alliance.
“At the meeting, which was protected by cartel hitmen armed with machine guns and other weapons, Iván and Ovidio promised that Los Chapitos would ensure Rocha Moya won the gubernatorial election. In exchange, Rocha Moya promised the leaders of Los Chapitos that if elected, he would ensure that officials close to Los Chapitos’ drug trafficking operations would be placed in positions of authority within the Sinaloa government,” the indictment details.
The case of the former university rector
In October 2024, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) reported that it had detected inconsistencies in the reports submitted by the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office regarding the murder of Héctor Melesio Cuén.
The agency, then headed by Alejandro Gertz Manero, revealed that the body had a severe hematoma on the head.
It also stated that the body had been shot four times in the legs; The video released by the prosecution regarding the gas station, where his client allegedly was killed, had no sound and only a single gunshot could be heard.
The three gas station employees testified that they did not hear any gunshots.
On August 10 of the same year, attorney Frank Pérez released a letter in which his client, El Mayo Zambada, asserted, among other things, that on July 25 of that year, in the same location where he was subdued by individuals close to Joaquín Guzmán López, Héctor Melesio Cuén was murdered.
“Joaquín Guzmán López asked me to attend a meeting to help resolve the differences between the political leaders of our state. I was aware of an ongoing dispute between Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of Sinaloa, and Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda, former federal deputy, mayor of Culiacán, and rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, regarding who should lead that institution,” the letter states. The letter was released a day after then-U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar asserted that Joaquín “El Mayo” Zambada was taken against his will to U.S. territory by Guzmán, who arranged his surrender.
In that context, Secretary Omar García Harfuch maintained at the morning press conference that the governor on leave did not impede the arrest of “high-priority targets” and that “there was never any impediment to the Security Cabinet carrying out its activities.”
Source: milenio
