Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, 66, who served as Sinaloa’s secretary of public security from September 2023 until his resignation in December 2024, was ordered held without bail during a brief appearance in Manhattan federal court. He was not required to enter a plea and is due back in court on June 1. A lawyer for Mérida Sánchez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. prosecutors allege that Mérida Sánchez took at least $100,000 in monthly cash bribes from “Los Chapitos,” the Sinaloa Cartel faction run by the sons of imprisoned ex‑cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. In exchange, according to the indictment, he leaked information about ongoing investigations and planned drug raids, and directed state police to arrest members of rival trafficking organizations rather than cartel figures.
In 2023 alone, Mérida Sánchez tipped off the Chapitos about at least 10 planned raids on labs and safe houses where the cartel stored drugs, weapons, and large quantities of cash, the indictment states. The warnings allowed cartel members to flee and remove evidence before law enforcement arrived.
Mérida Sánchez is the first of the 10 indicted officials to face a U.S. court. The other defendants include Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and Culiacán Mayor Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, both of whom announced temporary leaves of absence to address the charges but have yet to be apprehended. Several of those charged are members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party.
Sheinbaum, speaking after the indictment was announced, said she would not defend anyone found to have committed a crime. But she insisted that if authorities uncover “irrefutable” evidence, the officials should be prosecuted in Mexican courts, not in the United States. “We will never subordinate ourselves because this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people,” Sheinbaum said, risking a confrontation with President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened military strikes against cartel operations on Mexican territory.
Mérida Sánchez faces charges of narcotics importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess those weapons. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
The case is part of a broader U.S. crackdown on the Sinaloa Cartel, once the world’s largest drug‑trafficking organization. “El Chapo” was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, another Sinaloa kingpin, pleaded guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges last year and is scheduled to be sentenced to life in prison in July.