Picture: File Photo
New York: The US Justice Department on Wednesday charged the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa and other officials with drug trafficking.
The US attorney for the Southern District of New York said 10 people including Governor Ruben Rocha Moya are accused of working with the Sinaloa cartel to distribute "massive quantities" of narcotics to the United States.
Without mentioning the indictment, Mexico's Foreign Ministry said it received US extradition requests for "various people."
It complained that cases like this are normally handled confidentially under bilateral treaties, rather than being announced publicly first, and said it would send a note of protest to the US embassy "over the way it was announced."
The ministry said the Mexican attorney general's office will decide whether to extradite Rocha Moya and the other suspects to the United States.
Later Wednesday, Mexican authorities announced their own investigation to determine if "the accusation made by US authorities has legal grounds," attorney general spokesperson Ulises Lara said in a video posted to social media.
The governor himself denied the drug charges "categorically and absolutely" in a statement on X.
