Mexico wants evidence to back up U.S. drug charges against officials

Mexico is seeking "irrefutable evidence" to back up U.S. drug trafficking charges against a state governor and other officials before proceeding with extradition requests, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department unveiled charges on Wednesday against Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and nine others, accusing them of working with the notorious Sinaloa cartel to distribute "massive quantities" of narcotics to the United States. Rocha Moya, a member of the Sheinbaum's left-leaning Morena party and close ally of her predecessor, has governed the violent state since 2021. The other accused officials are also part of Morena. "If the Office of the Attorney General... receives solid and irrefutable evidence in accordance with Mexican law, or if, in the course of its own investigation, it finds elements constituting a crime, it must comply" with the U.S. extradition request, Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference. She added that if evidence was not provided or found, it will be evident that "the goal of these Justice Department accusations is political." Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily press conference, at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico on April 30, 2026. Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu via Sheinbaum noted this was the first time that the U.S. had made narcotrafficking charges public against a sitting governor or other high-ranking official. "We aren't going to protect anyone," she said. …