The Drug Enforcement Administration, together with the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Juan José Ponce Félix, a Sinaloa cartel figure known as “El Ruso,” according to a department press statement.
Officials said the offer is being made under the Narcotics Rewards Program. Ponce Félix — who also uses the name “Jesús Alejandro (Alexandro) Sánchez Félix” — is identified as the founder and leader of Los Rusos, an enforcement group aligned with “La Mayiza,” a major Sinaloa faction.
The department’s statement and previous case records show that Ponce Félix has been charged with racketeering, narcotics trafficking, guns, and money laundering in federal courts in California more than once.
Officials stated that the prize is part of a larger U.S. attempt to break up cartel networks that bring fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine from northwestern Mexico into the U.S. The government has called La Mayiza an important part of the cartel, which Washington named a Foreign Terrorist Organization earlier this year.
You can provide tips by phone at +52-55-2312-3768, by messaging apps, or by email at RusoTips@dea.gov. The department said that identities would be kept secret. People living out of the U.S. can provide information to a U.S. embassy or consulate, and people who live in the U.S. can call their local DEA or FBI field office.
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs runs the rewards program with help from U.S. law enforcement. On Tuesday, the State Department put up a wanted poster for Ponce Félix on its website.
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