In 2021, Rubén Rocha vehemently denied any connection to organized crime in Sinaloa. He had just won the gubernatorial election, but election day had been a disaster. Local media documented that several election workers — mostly from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), but also from Morena, his own party — had been kidnapped, beaten, and threatened by criminals. Some candidates withdrew from the race, and armed groups looted ballot boxes full of votes. Rocha, who emerged victorious amidst the chaos, said that he and Morena had been victims of the violence and claimed that the PRI, which had governed the state for years, had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. Now, the United States indictment alleges that this criminal organization helped Rocha win the election in exchange for political protection.

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Manuel Roberto and Fernando Farías Laguna were high-ranking officers in the Mexican Navy. Although they were brothers, within the Navy, they were referred to as “Los Primos” — The Cousins. This was perhaps because they were nephews by marriage of Rafael Ojeda Durán, who served as secretary of the navy under former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Their connection to such a powerful figure helped propel their rapid rise: despite their youth, Manuel Roberto reached the rank of vice admiral and Fernando became a rear admiral.

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Naasón Joaquín, leader of the La Luz del Mundo evangelical church, is serving a sentence in the United States for child sexual abuse and faces new federal charges for organized crime, sex trafficking, and child pornography. The U.S. justice system defines the congregation as a cult and links it to money laundering activities. In Mexico, however, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) closed a seven-year investigation, claiming it found no grounds to prosecute any crime.

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