By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have detained two former high-ranking officials from Mexico's Sinaloa state over alleged ties to the powerful Sinaloa cartel, court records and sources said on Friday.
They were charged last month along with Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha, who has not yet been detained, in what marks a significant escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Mexico over the fight against the drug cartels.
Gerardo Merida Sanchez, who served as public security secretary in Rocha's government from September 2023 through December 2024, was arrested in Arizona on Monday and appeared in Manhattan federal court on Friday, court records showed.
Separately, former Sinaloa finance minister Enrique Diaz surrendered to U.S. authorities on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. A Sinaloa government source also confirmed he was in U.S. custody. Reuters could not immediately reach Diaz or his representatives for comment.
Both former officials were charged in an indictment unsealed in court on April 29 with conspiring with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to import massive quantities of narcotics into the U.S. in exchange for political support and bribes.
The indictment signaled that the U.S. fight against the cartels was expanding beyond investigations into criminal groups to include politicians.
Rocha, a member of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's Morena party, denied the charges and said they were an attack against Mexico's governing political movement. He stepped aside temporarily on May 2, saying he did so with a "clean conscience."
Sheinbaum said on April 30 that she would not protect anyone who has committed a crime but added, "If there isn't clear evidence, it is obvious that the objective of these indictments by the Department of Justice is political."
Sheinbaum's office declined to comment on both former Sinaloa officials.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on Merida's case, and the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Diaz.
According to the indictment, Merida received bribes from sons of now-imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in exchange for giving them advance notice of law enforcement raids on drug labs.
The public defender who represented Merida in the Tucson proceeding did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not immediately clear how Merida was taken into custody in the U.S.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Emily Green and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Mark Porter and Sanjeev Miglani)
