Where’s Rocha?: The Trip of Rocha Moya to the U.S.
Several videos circulating on social media show ‘El Nini’s’ car displaying campaign propaganda for Rocha Moya.
El Paso, TEXAS— On the morning of July 25th, a private Lear 45 jet departed from Culiacán at around 9 a.m. The aircraft landed in Los Angeles just after 11 a.m. Almost at the same time, back in Culiacán, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada García fell into a trap: his own godson, Joaquín Guzmán López, would kidnap him to hand him over to U.S. authorities.
According to Zambada, in a letter shared by his attorney in Texas, he was made to believe he was attending a meeting between himself, his godson, the former rector of Sinaloa University Héctor Melesio Cuén, and the state's governor, Rubén Rocha Moya. Everyone attended the meeting—except Rocha Moya.
Following the capture of Guzmán López and Zambada García, as well as the murder of Melesio Cuén, Governor Rocha Moya claimed he knew nothing about the meeting and presented an alibi: "I found out in the afternoon-evening because I was out of town, and let me be clear—I was in Los Angeles." He then shared a flight itinerary showing that the Lear 45 jet, owned by Servicios Ejecutivo Aéreos VIZ SA de CV, flew from Culiacán to Los Angeles that morning. However, Rocha Moya was not on that plane.
Sources from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the United States revealed to SAGA that no record of Rubén Rocha Moya entering the country on the date he claims exists. The sources conducted an exhaustive search using the governor's full name, partial name, and date of birth, but the system showed no results.
“That person did not enter the country on that date or any nearby dates, I can assure you. Every person who enters the country is registered in our system, and there's no record of him,” said the source, showing SAGA a screenshot of the search.
Additionally, a member of one of the families leading the Sinaloa Cartel said that, according to narco circles, Rocha Moya never left the state. "What he did was send a secretary with his phone to make it look like he traveled to the U.S., but he never went there. That old man knew what was happening, he knew how it went down, and he agreed to let the Chapitos use his name to take El Mayo," said the Sinaloa Cartel source.
Since the release of El Mayo Zambada’s letter, the governor has denied any ties to the criminal, adding, "If they told him I would be there [at the meeting], they lied; and if [Zambada] believed them, then he fell into the trap.”
As of now, it remains unclear whether Rocha Moya was truly at the meeting. However, according to the sources consulted, it wouldn’t have been the first time. Rocha Moya and Cuén distanced themselves after MORENA chose Rocha Moya as the gubernatorial candidate—a position Cuén sought but failed to gain either political or financial support for.
The governor has also stated that there is nothing that can link him to the capture of El Mayo Zambada or the murder of Héctor Melesio Cuén. According to the cartel boss's version of events, Cuén was killed in Huertos del Pedregal at the same time Zambada was kidnapped—not during an attempted robbery at a Culiacán gas station as the official account suggests.
The Pre-War Meeting