Culiacan, Mexico - The governor of Mexico's Sinaloa State, Rubén Rocha Moya, stepped down from his position after being accused and indicted by the US on charges of drug smuggling and having links to the cartel.
Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, who was also named in the US indictment last week, also stepped down on Saturday, but denied all the charges put against him by the US Department of Justice.
"I reject the allegations that have been made public; they have no foundation," Gámez Mendívil wrote in a statement last week. "In my life, I have always acted in accordance with the law and with responsibility in public service."
Both senior Mexican politicians have been accused of protecting the Sinaloa cartel and assisting it in the smuggling and distribution of drugs into the US while taking millions in bribes.
"My conscience is clear," Rocha Moya said as he announced his resignation as governor. "To my people and to my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will."
"I will not allow myself to be used to harm the movement to which I belong – one that has improved the lives of millions of Mexican men and women."
Since the indictments were handed down last week, Rocha Moya has repeatedly implied that they are an attempt by the Trump administration to damage Mexico's governing Morena party, which is currently led by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Last week, Sheinbaum demanded that the DOJ provide Mexico City with "irrefutable" evidence to back up its claims against various Mexican officials.
"If the Office of the Attorney General… receives solid and irrefutable evidence in accordance with Mexican law, or if, in the course of its own investigation, it finds elements constituting a crime, it must comply," Sheinbaum said.