The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it would pay up to $10 million for information leading to the arrests or convictions of two brothers identified as leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel in the state of Baja California, which includes Tijuana.
The reward offer came the same day that authorities announced a new indictment against Rene Arzate Garcia, 42, known as “La Rana” (“The Frog”). He was initially charged with drug crimes in San Diego. The superseding indictment includes charges of conspiracy, narcoterrorism and material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The U. S. is offering $5 million each for information on Rene Arzate Garcia and Alfonso Arzate Garcia, 52, known as “Aquiles” (“Achilles”). Their whereabouts are unknown.
“As controllers of a critical trafficking node in Tijuana at the U.S. border, the Arzate-Garcia brothers have become key essential components of the cartel’s command-and-control structure,” the State Department said. “Their control of the Tijuana Plaza offers the Sinaloa Cartel a tactical advantage in maintaining dominance over rival organizations, ensuring no interruption to the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.”
According to court documents, René Arzate-García is involved in importing large quantities of illicit drugs into the U.S. “Known to be extremely violent, Arzate-García is also involved in carrying out enforcement operations, such as kidnappings and executions, for the Sinaloa Cartel,” according to the Justice Department.
“Rene Arzate-García is a ruthless Sinaloa Cartel plaza boss who is accused of exploiting U.S. ports of entry to flood our nation with fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine,” said DEA Administrator Terrance Cole.
In 2023, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the two brothers — as well as a fugitive dubbed “The Anthrax Monkey” — for alleged involvement in the production and trafficking of fentanyl.
California’s border with Mexico has been a battleground between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.
The rewards were announced four days after the Mexican army killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” decapitating what had become Mexico’s most powerful cartel. The drug lord — who had a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head — was the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet to show the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on the cartels.
Official said the capture of “El Mencho” came to fruition after military investigators began surveillance of one of the cartel leader’s romantic partners.
