Sinaloa Senator Enrique Inzunza Cazárez, who is facing drug trafficking and weapon charges, was taken into custody in San Diego by the Drug Enforcement Administration, multiple Mexican news outlets reported on Saturday.
The Department of Justice and the DEA’s San Diego field office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Inzunza Cazárez, 53, who is among 10 current and former Sinaloa officials who were indicted by the United States District Court Southern District of New York on April 29, is said to have turned himself in to federal authorities in southern California.
He is accused of narcotics importation conspiracy; possession of machine guns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Inzunza Cazárez, a member of the ruling Morena party, has held office since August 2024 and previously served as the Secretary General of Sinaloa under Governor Ruben Rocha Moya, who was also indicted and stepped down May 2.
According to the 34-page superseding indictment, the Sinaloa Senator conspired with the Sinaloa Cartel faction Los Chapitos – which is run by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s sons, to import drugs to the United States.
Inzunza Cazárez is accused of meeting with Los Chapitos leaders “and agreed on specific plans for the government in Sinaloa, under Rocha Moya, to support and protect the cartel for favors from the cartel that, in turn, help the defendants and other corrupt officials in power.”
The Department of Justice alleged that Inzunza Cazárez and businessman Enrique Diaz Vega, who once served as the state’s Secretary of Administration and Finance from November 2021 to September 2024 and turned himself in to authorities in Arizona on Friday, assisted Los Chapitos leaders in installing dishonest officials to protect that cartel faction’s drug trafficking operations and acted as middlemen between El Chapo’s sons and Rocha Moya.
Ahead of the June 2021 elections, Diaz Vega provided Los Chapitos the names and addresses of Rocha Moya’s opponents so that the cartel “could threaten and force those opponents to drop out of the gubernatorial race.”
After Rocha Moya took office, he and Inzunza Cazárez held a meeting with Los Chapitos leaders and recognized that they helped deliver a triumphant campaign, according to the court document.
In return, the indictment indicated that “Rocha Moya would ensure that the Chapitos had control over the Sinaloa State Police, which would allow the Chapitos to carry out its drug trafficking operations without the risk of interference by state law enforcement.”
Inzunza Cázares’ lawyers reportedly held talks with the Department of Justice for his voluntary surrender and to become a government witness, Mexican newspaper El Universal reported May 2.
“A drug trafficker who surrenders and offers information primarily falls under the category of a cooperating witness,” a Department of Justice source told the outlet.
However, Inzunza Cázares shut down the report the same day.
“Utterly false,” he wrote on X.
Adela Piriz Castellano, who heads the social assistance and family welfare agency in Macuspana, Tabasco, credited President Donald Trump for Inzunza Cázares’ apprehension.
“He was arrested following formal charges by the United States Department of Justice, which links him to drug trafficking and the Sinaloa Cartel,” she wrote on social media. “TRUMP: THE BEST PRESIDENT FOR MEXICO”
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