The federal government’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has blocked the bank accounts of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current and former officials accused of drug trafficking by U.S. prosecutors in an indictment that was unsealed on April 29.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that the UIF acted after Mexican banks took “a series of measures” related to the accounts of Rocha and the nine other officials accused of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexican media first reported last week that the defendants’ accounts had been frozen.
Claudia Sheinbaum afirmó que será la UIF la que detalle las razones del congelamiento de cuentas de Rubén Rocha Moya y otras personas con órdenes de aprehensión en Estados Unidos.
La presidenta aclaró que la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera no abrió una investigación propia o… pic.twitter.com/VSYAHYtcKL
— Aristegui Noticias (@AristeguiOnline) May 19, 2026
On Monday, Sheinbaum said that “since there is an arrest warrant in the United States for 10 individuals, banks here, because they have relationships with banks there, take a series of measures, and the UIF automatically takes preventive action.”
Asked whether the UIF was investigating Rocha, who is currently on leave as governor, Sheinbaum said it was not.
She said that the UIF would issue a statement explaining that its freezing of the accounts of the people accused of drug trafficking in the United States was the result of “automatic mechanisms” that are triggered in such cases.
In its statement, the UIF said that additions to the “List of Blocked Persons” were of a “strictly preventive nature” and due to “reports issued by institutions of the Mexican financial system.”
“These reports … stemmed from allegations made by U.S. authorities and disseminated publicly,” said the UIF, which is part of the federal Finance Ministry.
“Consequently, Mexican banks, which maintain correspondent banking relationships with U.S. financial institutions, issued alerts regarding customers considered to be Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) in accordance with their compliance and monitoring procedures,” the statement said.
“Based on these bank reports, … the UIF carried out a preventive freeze in order to protect the integrity of the national financial system.”
The UIF said that “these measures don’t constitute a definitive determination nor do they imply a finding of liability.”
Rather, they are “preventive actions of an administrative nature,” the agency said.
The UIF also said that “the people included on the List of Blocked Persons have access to defense mechanisms and guarantees provided under applicable legislation, including the exercise of the right to a hearing.”
In addition, it said that it was analyzing a range of “information and documentation” related to the politically exposed persons included on the List of Blocked Persons.
Two of the 10 defendants, both of whom were ministers in the state government led by Rocha, turned themselves in to U.S. authorities last week. All of the other suspects are presumed to be in Mexico.
2 former Sinaloa officials in US custody following drug trafficking indictment
According to the U.S. indictment, Rocha and the nine other defendants participated in a conspiracy with the Sinaloa Cartel to “import massive amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States.”
“Among other things, the defendants have shielded Cartel leaders from investigation, arrest, and prosecution; caused sensitive law enforcement and military information to be provided to members of the Cartel and allied drug traffickers to assist the Cartel’s criminal activities; directed members of state and local law enforcement agencies … to protect drug loads stored in and transiting through Mexico to the United States; and allowed brutal drug-related violence to be committed by members of the Cartel without consequence,” the indictment states.
“In exchange, the defendants have collectively received millions of dollars in drug money from the Cartel,” it says.
Rocha and other accused officials, including a Morena party federal senator and the mayor of Culiacán, have rejected the accusations against them. Mexican authorities have said there is currently insufficient evidence against the defendants to warrant their arrest for the purpose of extradition.
Rocha and various other suspects are affiliated with Morena, the party founded by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and which backed Sheinbaum at the 2024 presidential election.
Milenio: UIF investigating companies linked to Rocha’s sons
The newspaper Milenio reported on Tuesday that the UIF has begun an investigation into the financial transactions of companies linked to Rocha’s three sons.
“The noose is tightening around Rubén Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa who is currently on leave,” the newspaper wrote.
“In addition to having his accounts frozen, the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) yesterday began reviewing all financial transactions involving his son’s companies, according to requests within the national banking system to which Milenio had access.”
Milenio said that companies linked to Rocha’s sons are suspected of carrying out “operations of financial triangulation and money laundering.”
Those companies include construction firms, a market research firm and an agricultural business.
The newspaper Reforma published a similar report on Sunday, writing that the UIF was looking at “possible money laundering operations, financial triangulation and the use of companies” linked to Rocha’s family.
Reforma reported that the bank accounts of the governor’s sons have also been blocked.
“The freezing of accounts ordered by the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) is no longer limited to former officials and security commanders accused in U.S. investigations, but has extended to the ex-governor’s children,” the newspaper wrote, specifically mentioning Rubén, Ricardo and Jose Jesús, three of Rocha Moya’s four children.
(Rocha’s also has a daughter, Eneyda Rocha Ruiz, who is president of the DIF family services agency in Sinaloa.)
Citing letters sent by the National Banking and Securities Commission on May 6, Reforma said that the UIF wasn’t just required to add the 10 people accused of drug trafficking by U.S. prosecutors to the List of Blocked Persons, but family members of the governor as well.
With reports from CNN Español, La Jornada, Reuters, Reforma and Milenio
