News Analysis: Mexico’s dilemma — Extradite officials to U.S. or risk angering Trump

The betrayal of Zambada sparked a vicious battle for control of the Sinaloa cartel that has resulted in thousands of deaths. The raging cartel war pits Los Chapitos and their allies against loyalists of Zambada.

Suspicions of possible ties to drug traffickers have long hung over Rocha Mayo, who was born in Badiraguato, the same mountainous municipality in Sinaloa that is the hometown of El Chapo and other cartel bigwigs.

In an interview when he was a candidate for governor, Rocha Mayo told reporter Carlos Loret de la Mola that governments must figure out a way to co-exist with organized crime, which exerts de-facto control over vast stretches of Sinaloa and other Mexican states.

“We have to find a way to do it,” Rocha Mayo said. “Governments in general deny that there is any contact or conversation with criminals. But contacts are made between government officials and drug traffickers … and a state policy must be designed for that coordination.”

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed.