A $5m reward has been announced as US authorities hunt René Arzate-García – the Sinaloa Cartel drug lord has a daughter with one of El Chapo’s ex-girlfriends
A $5m reward has been announced as US authorities hunt a top Sinaloa Cartel boss.
René Arzate-García – also known as ‘La Rana’ – faces charges of narcoterrorism, drug trafficking and money-laundering offences linked to the notorious Mexican cartel.
The US Justice Department last Thursday announced a superseding indictment against Arzate-García, while the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in collaboration with the Justice and State Departments, offered rewards of up to $5m each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of ‘La Rana’ and his brother Alfonso ‘Aquiles’ Arzate-García.
Arzate-García, who was born in 1983, is believed to have begun his criminal career in Tijuana, in the north-western Mexican state of Baja California, as a teenager before rising through the ranks to become the Sinaloa Cartel’s plaza boss in the state.
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Arzate-García has a daughter with Valeria Rubí Quiroz, also known as ‘La Gringuita’, who previously had a relationship with Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Speaking about her “fleeting but significant” relationship with Arzate-García on Gusgri Podcast in March 2024, Quiroz said the pair met in Culiacán, Sinaloa, when she was 18 – after her relationship with ‘El Chapo’.
“René was my prince, my one true love. He always tried to pamper me,” she said. She explained their daughter is named Mía Ener because “Ener is René spelt backwards”. “My daughter looks just like him,” she added.
The relationship ended after a rumour spread by a magazine falsely linked her to boxer Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, Infobae reports. Quiroz said the media scandal damaged her relationship with Arzate-García and eventually led to their separation.
“I never had anything with him [Canelo]. He knows that nothing ever happened between us,” she said. “I understand why René got angry. He always knew the truth, but it was too much. It was a very difficult time for both of us.”
Quiroz said she lost touch with Arzate-García soon after but still hopes their daughter will one day meet him. The Arzate-García brothers were first indicted in the Southern District of California in 2014. Authorities say their whereabouts remain unknown.
The latest indictment marks another step in the Trump administration’s crackdown on Mexican drug cartels.
The Sinaloa Cartel remains one of the world’s most powerful criminal organisations, playing a key role in the global distribution of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, according to the DEA.
Last year, the Trump administration designated the cartel as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
It comes after Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – known as “El Mencho” – the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was killed last month in the outskirts of Tapalpa, about 100 miles south of Guadalajara, in Mexico’s western state of Jalisco.
Authorities tracked one of Cervantes’ romantic partners to the drug lord’s hideout in Tapalpa, where he and two of his bodyguards were seriously injured in a firefight. The trio were taken into custody and died while being transported to Mexico City, Defence Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said.
More than 60 people – including a pregnant woman, 25 National Guard soldiers, agents and police officers, and 34 cartel members – were killed in the violence that erupted during and after the operation, according to authorities.
