The US authorities have announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Rene Arzate-Garcia, a Sinaloa Cartel member who has a daughter with one of El Chapo’s former girlfriends.
Valeria Ruby Queiroz, ‘La Gringuita’, is the ex-girlfriend of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman
US authorities have announced a $5 million reward for the search for the top boss of the Sinaloa Cartel.
René Arzate-Garcia, also known as “La Rana,” is charged with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and money-laundering crimes linked to the notorious Mexican cartel.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the unsealing of the indictment against Arzate-Garcia last Thursday, while the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in cooperation with the Justice and State departments, offered a reward of up to $5 million to anyone with information leading to the arrest or conviction of ‘La Rana’ and his brother Alfonso ‘Aquiles’ Arzate-Garcia.
Arzate-Garcia, who was born in 1983, is believed to have begun his criminal career as a teenager in Tijuana, in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, after which he became the Plaza boss of the Sinaloa Cartel in the state.
Rene Arzate-Garcia is shown in a wanted poster (Image: US Department of Justice)
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Arzate-Garcia has a daughter with Valeria Ruby Quiroz, also known as ‘La Gringuita’, who previously had a relationship with Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Speaking about her “momentary but significant” relationship with Arzate-Garcia on the Gusgri podcast in March 2024, Queiroz said the pair met in Culiacán, Sinaloa, when she was 18 – following her relationship with ‘El Chapo’.
She said, “René was my prince, my true love. He always tried to pamper me.” She revealed that her daughter’s name is Mia Ener because “Ener is René spelt backwards.” “My daughter looks just like her,” he said.
The relationship ended after a magazine falsely linked her to boxer Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, Infobae reports. Queiroz said that the media scandal damaged his relationship with Arzate-Garcia and they eventually separated.
“I never had any relationship with him [Canelo]. “He knows nothing ever happened between us,” she said. “I understand why René got frustrated. He always knew the truth, but it was too much. It was a very difficult time for both of us.”
Quiroz said she lost contact with Arzate-Garcia shortly afterward but still hopes her daughter will meet her one day. The Arzate-Garcia brothers were first convicted in 2014 in the Southern District of California. Officials say his whereabouts are unknown.
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
The latest indictment marks another step in the Trump administration’s crackdown on Mexican drug cartels.
According to the DEA, the Sinaloa Cartel is one of the most powerful criminal organisations in the world, and it plays a significant role in the global distribution of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin.
Last year, the Trump administration designated the cartel as both a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and a specialised global terrorist (SDGT).
It comes after the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes—known as “El Mencho”—was murdered last month on the outskirts of Tapalpa, about 100 miles south of Guadalajara in Mexico’s western state of Jalisco.
Authorities tracked down a romantic partner of Cervantes to a drug lord’s hideout in Tapalpa, where he and two of his bodyguards were seriously injured in a shootout. Defence Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said the three were taken into custody and died while being transported to Mexico City.
According to officials, more than 60 people were killed in the violence that erupted during and after the operation – including a pregnant woman, 25 National Guard soldiers, agents and police officers, and 34 cartel members.
