SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Thursday it will pay up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of two brothers who were leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Baja California, Mexico, including Tijuana.
The reward was issued the same day authorities announced new indictments against 42-year-old Rene Arzate Garcia, known as “La Rana” (“The Frog”). He was originally charged with drug crimes in San Diego. The superseding indictment includes charges of conspiracy, narco-terrorism and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The United States has offered a reward of $5 million each for information on Rene Arzate Garcia and Alfonso Arzate Garcia, 52, known as “Achilles.” Their whereabouts are unknown.
“As controllers of a key trafficking node on the U.S. border in Tijuana, the Alzate-Garcia brothers have become a key component of the drug cartel’s command and control structure,” the State Department said. “Their control of Tijuana Plaza provides the Sinaloa Cartel with a tactical advantage to maintain dominance over rival groups and ensure that the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere is not disrupted.”
The California-Mexico border has been a battleground between a new generation of drug cartels in Sinaloa and Jalisco.
Four days later, Mexican troops killed Nemesio Ruben Oceguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), the leader of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, decapitating Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel and announcing a reward. The drug lord is the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet for the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on drug cartels.
