US offers $10 million reward for Sinaloa Cartel brothers tied to San Diego drug corridor
The U.S. State Department is offering up to $5 million each for two Sinaloa Cartel leaders accused of controlling one of the most important drug corridors into Southern California. One of the men now faces expanded federal charges that include narcoterrorism.
The State Department announced Thursday that it is seeking information leading to the arrest or conviction of René Arzate-García, known as “La Rana,” and his brother Alfonso Arzate-García, known as “Aquiles.”
According to the DEA, the brothers have overseen the so-called Tijuana Plaza for roughly 15 years, managing trafficking routes that move fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana toward the U.S. border.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California first charged the brothers in 2014 in separate drug trafficking cases. Both have remained fugitives since then.
On Thursday, the Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment against René Arzate-García that adds charges of narcoterrorism, running a continuing criminal enterprise, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, international drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering.
The Sinaloa Cartel was designated last year by the Trump administration as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. The Treasury Department sanctioned the Arzate-García brothers in 2023 under an executive order aimed at the global drug trade.
The new reward offers comes after the State Department quietly updated its most high-profile cartel reward poster.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” the longtime head of the rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG, is now listed as deceased. The United States had offered up to $15 million for information leading to his capture.
Mexican forces killed Oseguera Cervantes on Sunday during a major security operation in the western state of Jalisco that received logistical and intelligence support from the Trump administration.
In the aftermath, cartel gunmen carried out coordinated retaliatory attacks across 20 of Mexico’s 32 states. Some of the violence reached Tijuana, where the Sinaloa Cartel is locked in an ongoing battle with the rival CJNG.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
