Mexican governor and mayor step down after U.S. drug trafficking indictments

World May 2, 2026 3:19 PM EDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's party in the northwestern Sinaloa state said they would temporarily step down from their posts after the United States charged them and eight other politicians and security officers with drug trafficking in a bombshell indictment that has shaken Mexico's political establishment. In a short video announcement at midnight Friday, Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, the highest-ranking official named in the indictment, denied accusations that he protected the Sinaloa cartel and helped it smuggle drugs into the U.S. in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes. READ MORE: Mexico says 2 U.S. federal agents who died were not authorized to participate in any local operation "My conscience is clear," said Rocha, 76, a longtime ally of influential former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. "To my people and to my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will." But he said he would take a temporary leave of absence from the position he has held for six years to defend himself against what he called the "false and malicious" allegations and cooperate with the Mexican