MEXICO CITY, April 30. /TASS/. The Mexican authorities do not intend to extradite Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and other officials to the US unless the American side provides sufficient evidence of their guilt in accordance with Mexican law, President Claudia Sheinbaum stated.
"If the Attorney General’s Office, which is the competent authority, receives compelling and irrefutable evidence in accordance with Mexican law or finds grounds for criminal charges during its own investigation, it will be required to act in accordance with the law under our jurisdiction. <...> However, if there is no clear evidence, it is obvious that the purpose of these accusations by the [US] Department of Justice [against Mexican officials] is political in nature," the president emphasized during a press conference.
Sheinbaum added that Mexico does not intend to cover for anyone but rather builds relations with all countries based on equality. According to her, the authorities will under no circumstances allow a foreign government to interfere in decisions that fall exclusively within the Mexicans' jurisdiction.
Earlier, Mexican Attorney General’s Office’s Spokeswoman Ulises Lara Lopez emphasized that the US authorities’ request for the extradition of several Mexican officials on charges of ties to drug cartels was not supported by a convincing body of evidence. She pointed out that the documents provided by the Americans were not accompanied by evidence offering irrefutable confirmation of the alleged facts. In light of this, investigators have launched their own parallel investigation.
On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice announced that the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York had filed charges against Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and nine other officials. US investigators suspect the officials of conspiring with the Sinaloa cartel to ship drugs to the US in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes and political support during elections. The governor himself categorically rejected these allegations, calling them baseless slander.