Mexico’s Indictment Crisis: Two in U.S. Custody

Mexico’s indictment crisis continues and now there are actually two of the indicted in U.S. custody.

A U.S. federal court indicted ten Mexican officials and former officials, all from the state of Sinaloa, for involvement with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. The ten are all government officials or former government officials from the state of Sinaloa, home of the Sinaloa Cartel. (See here, here, here , here and here and here).

Here’s a list of the ten indicted:

1. The biggest fish being indicted is Ruben Rocha Moya, Governor of the state of Sinaloa, and a member of President Sheinbaum’s MORENA party. Rocha took a temporary leave of absence from the governorship to fight the charges.
2.  A sitting Mexican Senator from Sinaloa, Enrique Inzunza Cazarez, also the former Secretary General for Sinaloa. Inzunza is a member of President Sheinbaum’s MORENA party.
3. Enrique Diaz Vega, Former Secretary of Administration and Finance for Sinaloa
4. Damaso Castro Saavedra, Deputy Attorney General for the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office
5. Marco Antonio Almanza Aviles, Former head of the Investigative Police for the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office
6. Alberto Jorge Contreras Nunez, a/k/a “Cholo”, former head of the Investigative Police for the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office
7. Gerardo Merida Sanchez, Former Secretary of Public Security for Sinaloa
8. Jose Antonio Dionisio Hipolito, a/k/a “Tornado”, Former Deputy Director of the Sinaloa State Police
9. Juan de Dios Gamez Mendivil, Mayor of Culiacan (Sinaloa’s capital and largest city). Gamez has taken temporary leave also.
10. Juan Valenzuela Millan, a/k/a “Juanito”, Former high-level commander in the Culiacan Municipal Police

And here’s a recent development. Two of the ten indicted are now in U.S. custody.

Gerardo Merida Sanchez (#7 on the list above). On May 11th, Merida crossed the border from the state of Sonora into the U.S., where U.S. Marshalls took him into custody at the Nogales border crossing. Merida was taken to New York City where he appeared in court on May 15th and is scheduled to appear again on June 1st.

Enrique Diaz (#3 on the list above). Diaz turned himself into U.S. authorities, either in a U.S. consulate in Europe, or in New York City.

So now two of the ten indicted Sinaloans are in U.S. custody. What is going to happen to the other eight ?

And here’s another consideration. If you were one of ten officials/former officials indicted, would it be better to be one of the first to be indicted or one of the last to be indicted? What are Merida and Diaz revealing about the others in current interrogations?