US Offers $5 Million Reward for Information on Ponce Félix, Leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and ‘Los Rusos’

The United States government announced Tuesday that it is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Juan José Ponce Félix, also known as Jesús Alexandro Sánchez Félix and ‘El Ruso,’ whom it accuses of being the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The reward is being offered by the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs under the Narcotics Rewards Program (NRP).

The State Department reported that according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Ponce Félix is ​​the founder and leader of Los Rusos, the main armed wing of La Mayiza, which it described as “a powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, co-founded and led by Ismael Zambada García, alias ‘El Mayo.'”

The cartel’s La Mayiza faction manages the production and trafficking of fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine from northwestern Mexico to the United States.

The cartel added that “over the past decade, Ponce Félix has been indicted multiple times in the Central and Southern Districts of California on organized crime, drug trafficking, firearms, and money laundering charges.”