THE pact with the authorities worked like this, cartel operatives said: spoken code words cleared the way for drugs and weapons to pass through security checkpoints unimpeded; names of rivals were given to police officers who detained and delivered them to their enemies; and at times, cartel gunmen joined in on police raids.
For years, an invisible architecture of protection inside various levels of Mexico’s government allowed the Sinaloa Cartel to operate in plain sight, several members of the criminal syndicate said.
That system helped the cartel become one of the world’s most powerful criminal organisations, trafficking billions of dollars worth of fentanyl over the US border, even as key leaders of the group were taken down and an internal war ripped the organisation in two.
Days after a US indictment against several Mexican officials was unsealed in April, I spoke with four cartel operatives, who agreed to discuss how the Sinaloa Cartel worked with politicians and law enforcement and military members in recent years.
The indictment accuses the governor of Sinaloa state, Ruben Rocha Moya, and nine other former and current state politicians of maintaining a years-long alliance with the group in exchange for bribes and political support.
Prosecutors allege that the cartel – particularly the Chapitos faction, which is run by the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – helped Rocha win the Sinaloa governorship in 2021 by stealing ballots and kidnapping and intimidating opposition candidates.
In return, US prosecutors say, Rocha promised to support their trafficking operations and, once in office, allowed the group to operate freely by installing corrupt officials across state and local governments, who protected the cartel.
Despite more than 200 documented reports of armed intimidation, ballot theft and candidate kidnappings, local and federal electoral authorities dismissed the 2021 turmoil as a group of isolated incidents and formally upheld Rocha’s victory.
Three of the operatives said they were tied to the Sinaloa Cartel’s Chapitos faction while one said he was connected to the opposing faction, Los Mayos. They did not provide their full names and spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from law enforcement and their bosses.
Their descriptions of the protection networks involving the cartel and local authorities were corroborated by experts, former officials and evidence from past criminal cases.
Local authorities continue to provide some protection today, the operatives said, though the arrangement has been weakened by an internal war between the factions and a crackdown on criminal groups by the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Rocha, who has temporarily stepped aside as governor, has denied the charges in the US indictment, calling them “entirely false and without foundation”. He also said the charges were an attempt by the Trump administration to undermine Mexico’s sovereignty and target the leftist coalition led by Sheinbaum, of which Rocha is a member.
Sheinbaum has declined the United States’ requests to arrest Rocha, saying that the evidence is insufficient, and has instead directed Mexico’s attorney-general to investigate.
Three of the cartel operatives I spoke with said the most consistent form of protection came through local and state police forces, who acted as reliable collaborators.
Officers carried out targeted arrests, tracked rivals and turned them over to their enemies and, in some cases, participated directly in cartel operations, the operatives said.
At times, one operative said, cartel members themselves joined official police raids, dressed in uniform to carry out crimes for the law enforcement officials.
Another operative, 28, who said he has worked with the cartel since he was 13, mentioned how that government cooperation extended to some members of the military.
He explained that at checkpoints, soldiers allowed cartel members to pass with drugs or weapons once they provided the rotating code words – “green, R8, delta,” for instance – to verify their affiliation.
The operative had a quiet demeanour and spoke about his line of work with remorse.
“I try not to think too much,” he said. “I regret all of it. I wish I had never entered this life.”
He said he grasped the depth of the protection the cartel receives from the authorities about two years ago, when his boss was hunting a man who owed the group money. The notice went out to bus stations, tollbooths, checkpoints and the airport.
A call came in from an airport employee. The target had just bought a ticket to Tijuana. The operative said he went to the airport, where he was stopped by soldiers.
After a brief exchange, he simply offered two words – “La Chapiza” – and was waved through.
He walked up to the target, took him by the arm and showed him the gun under his jacket, he said.
He said that was when he thought, “We’re plugged in everywhere, all the way from the top.”
The operative recounted the story while carrying three cellphones and a radio.
One of those phones, he explained, was for both cartel members and police officers to share information on which streets to avoid, where rivals were moving and where military checkpoints were set up.
Officials, employees and ordinary residents understood the terms, he said: cooperate with the cartel, take some money and live; refuse and you die, and the cartel goes after your family. — ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
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