US Offering $10 Million Reward for Capture of 2 Brothers Heading Sinaloa Cartel

The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is offering rewards of up to $5 million each for any information that leads to the arrests or convictions of two brothers leading Mexican criminal group Sinaloa Cartel’s Tijuana operations, the department said in a Feb. 26 statement.

Information is being sought for René Arzate-García, also known as “La Rana,” and his brother Alfonso Arzate-García, who goes by “Aquiles,” the department said.

“Rene and Alfonso Arzate-García have jointly controlled the Tijuana Plaza for the Sinaloa Cartel for the past 15 years, maintaining authority through violence, strategic alliances, and deep local influence, including political and police corruption,” the department said.

“Despite ongoing conflicts, they continue to manage this critical trafficking corridor, making them key figures in sustaining cartel operations, including trafficking deadly illicit fentanyl, designated by the Trump Administration as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, into U.S. communities.”

The Sinaloa Cartel was designated as a foreign terrorist organization and a specially designated global terrorist in February 2025 by the State Department.

Based in Sinaloa, Mexico, the cartel is one of the most powerful drug organizations in the world, and one of the largest producers and traffickers of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, into the United States. The cartel has engaged in murder, kidnapping, and intimidation of civilians, journalists, and government officials.

The brothers were charged with drug trafficking offenses in the Southern District of California in 2014, and have since been fugitives, the State Department said.

In August 2023, the brothers were designated by the Treasury’s Office of Financial Assets Control under an executive order targeting foreign nationals involved in the global illicit drug trade.

The $5 million per individual reward is being offered under the Narcotics Rewards Program. For more than three decades, the program has been used as a tool by the U.S. government to disrupt and dismantle transnational drug trafficking groups.

The program has so far brought more than 75 major foreign violators of U.S. narcotic laws to justice, with the State Department paying more than $135 million in rewards to informers.

Indictment

The $5 million reward complements the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Feb. 26 announcement of a superseding indictment charging Rene Arzate-García with narcoterrorism and material support for terrorism in connection with trafficking large amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and fentanyl into the United States.

The Tijuana operation controlled by René Arzate-García covers the entire state of Baja California, Mexico. In addition to drug imports, he is also accused of laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds. His criminal history includes corrupting Mexican law enforcement and public officials, and committing extreme violence, including murders and kidnappings, the DOJ said.

“Foreign terrorist organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel have spent decades poisoning our children and committing acts of unimaginable violence against innocent civilians—no longer under President Trump,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.

“This latest indictment, which follows the landmark conviction of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder ‘El Mayo’ on American soil, is a key development in this Department of Justice’s ongoing campaign to permanently dismantle these cartels and deliver American justice to their cowardly leaders.”

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was taken into U.S. custody in July 2024. In September that year, he had pleaded not guilty to 17 felony counts, including drug trafficking, weapons charges, and money laundering. Last year, El Mayo’s lawyers revealed that he was willing to plead guilty in a deal if spared from the death penalty.

The $5 million reward and superseding indictment against René Arzate-García come as the United States recently provided intelligence to the Mexican government in an operation that killed a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel on Feb. 22.

The killing of the leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was followed by reports of violence across Mexico.

In an X post on Sunday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Donald Trump wants narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs into the United States to “face the wrath of justice they have long deserved.”