A defiant Sheinbaum refuses to extradite Mexican officials on US drug charges

Patrick J. McDonnell and Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times on Apr 30, 2026

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MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum denounced the U.S. prosecution of a sitting Mexican governor and other officials on drug trafficking charges as “political,” and said Thursday that Mexico would not comply with Washington’s demands that the accused be arrested and extradited to the United States.

“We are not permitting a foreign government to say what is the future of Mexico,” said Sheinbaum, who repeatedly assailed U.S. “meddling” in the incendiary case.

U.S. authorities have not submitted sufficient evidence to justify the arrests and detentions of anyone in Mexico, Sheinbaum said.

Mexico’s rejection of the U.S. demand for the arrest and extradition of the accused would appear to put Mexico on a collision course with Trump, who has harshly criticized Sheinbaum’s government for not doing enough to crack down on cartels.

Sheinbaum’s comments come a day after the unsealing of a bombshell indictment in federal court in New York accusing 10 current and former Mexican officials of drug trafficking, arms offenses and links to the notorious Sinaloa cartel co-founded by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Topping the list of accused was Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of the northwestern Sinaloa state. Also indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice were a federal senator from Sinaloa and the sitting mayor of Culiacán, the state capital of Sinaloa.

Rocha Moya and others named have denied the charges, calling them an attempt to subvert Mexico’s sovereignty.

The indictment outlines a disturbing scenario of an entire Mexican state and its institutions at the service of the Sinaloa mob.

But Sheinbaum disputed the account as inaccurate and lacking evidence. During her morning news conference, she seemed to mock some of the U.S. evidence, including hand-written ledgers allegedly denoting payoffs to Mexican politicians. Her staff projected the images on the screen during the morning session at Mexico’s National Palace.

Sheinbaum emphasized that it was unprecedented for the U.S. to initiate charges directly against a sitting governor. “This has never happened before, ever,” she said.

She repeatedly said that her government “protects no one,” but demanded “real” and “irrefutable” evidence before taking action against Rocha Moya and others.

Sheinbaum’s defiance places Mexico in a confrontation with U.S. authorities not seen since 2021, during the first Trump presidency, when a former Mexican defense minister was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on trafficking charges.

Retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos was eventually released after an intense lobbying campaign by Mexican diplomats and then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor.

Cienfuegos never faced charges in Mexico, and López Obrador accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of fabricating a case against him.

“Why did they do the investigation like this?” López Obrador said at the time. “Without support, without proof?”