The United States Department of Justice is reportedly evaluating radical and unilateral options to bring Sinaloa Governor on leave Rubén Rocha Moya to justice following the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum’s refusal to arrest him for extradition.
This was revealed by journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio in his column Estrictamente Personal, where he states that Mexico’s inaction in arresting Sinaloa officials, led by Rocha Moya, has exhausted Washington’s patience.
According to the columnist, the United States is considering several options to capture the Sinaloa politician, ranging from an arrest in international airspace or international waters to the involvement of bounty hunters or elite commandos, similar to the operation carried out against Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
“Given the Mexican government’s failure to arrest the governor on leave for extradition purposes, there is the possibility that the Department of Justice will indict him in absentia in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and request an international arrest warrant,” the column states.
Last week marked two months since the Department of Justice accused Rocha Moya and nine other officials of conspiring “with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle large quantities of drugs into the United States in exchange for political support and bribes.”
President Claudia Sheinbaum has maintained her refusal to order his immediate arrest for extradition, arguing that there is no evidence supporting the accusations against the Sinaloa officials.
According to Riva Palacio’s reporting, the United States accuses Mexico of violating the Extradition Treaty and claims that this led to a tense complaint directed at Sheinbaum by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who visited the president in Mexico three weeks after the accusations were announced.
“There is no definitive answer establishing whether or not the Sheinbaum administration violated the Extradition Treaty… (but) the United States believes that Mexico failed to comply with the treaty, which was the primary complaint Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made to Sheinbaum,” he explains.
Not Renewing the USMCA: A Trump Retaliation Against Mexico
According to the author of Estrictamente Personal, the Sheinbaum administration’s refusal to hand over Rocha Moya is the reason why the Trump administration has decided to impose economic and judicial retaliation against Mexico.
Within that context, he says, falls Trump’s decision not to extend the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and instead subject it to annual review, along with actions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which sanctioned two Mexican citizens and nine companies for allegedly being linked to a fuel theft network associated with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
As part of those measures, OFAC and FinCEN stated that criminal profits from fuel theft finance political campaigns “to help elect corrupt Mexican politicians willing to collaborate with the cartels.”
Riva Palacio adds that the refusal to extradite Rocha Moya has also caused internal disagreements within the Mexican cabinet, where “several officials, including a cabinet secretary, claim that President Claudia Sheinbaum’s refusal to hand him over caused Donald Trump not to extend the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.”
Rocha Moya: The Key Figure the United States Wants to Understand the Structure of Narco-Politics
According to Raymundo Riva Palacio, officials in Washington are convinced that Rocha Moya is the key figure who could reveal “the architecture of the regime’s political negotiations with the Sinaloa Cartel and the elected offices that were negotiated.”
The journalist explains that Washington is considering the possibility that the “Department of Justice will indict him in absentia in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and request an international arrest warrant.” Under that scenario, if the Sinaloa politician is detected traveling through international airspace or international waters, he could be arrested.
Another option reportedly under consideration is the use of bounty hunters to “capture him in Mexico and hand him over to U.S. authorities,” or, in the most extreme scenario, that he could face the same fate as former Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, “who was captured by a Homeland Security Investigations command unit in Culiacán during an operation designed by the FBI.”
For now, Riva Palacio adds, the pressure has intensified with the freezing of Rocha Moya’s bank accounts and assets in the United States.
“A U.S. source revealed that, for that reason, the governor on leave’s family, whom he had sent to Los Angeles after Zambada implicated him, has already returned to Mexico.”
According to Riva Palacio’s information, the governor “remains in hiding at a ranch north of Culiacán, protected by the Sinaloa state police but under surveillance by the Mexican Army.”
Source: vanguardia
