KVIG Informative

Ricardo Verduzco Bernal was coordinating elite sports for the Sinaloa state government until July 31. Twelve days later, the FBI found him in a Salt Lake City hotel room with 11 kilograms of fentanyl, enough for 111,000 pills.

FBI agents arrested Ricardo Verduzco Bernal, 54, on August 12 in a hotel room in Salt Lake County, Utah, after finding approximately 11.16 kilograms of a substance that field-tested positive for fentanyl, the equivalent of roughly 111,000 pills of the synthetic opioid. The U.S. Department of Justice scheduled his court appearance for Wednesday, August 26, at the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

Verduzco Bernal was not an ordinary citizen. Until July 31, just twelve days before his arrest, he served as the northern-zone coordinator for elite sports at the Sinaloa Institute of Physical Culture and Sport (ISDE), an agency of the Sinaloa state government led by Governor Rubén Rocha Moya. Before that, between 2022 and 2024, he directed the Guasave Municipal Sports Institute (Imudeg) under then-mayor Martín Ahumada Quintero.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the arrest resulted from an investigation by the FBI’s Wasatch Metro Drug Task Force (WMDTF) into an organization authorities say was distributing large quantities of fentanyl and other narcotics across the District of Utah. Undercover agents carried out a controlled buy of fentanyl directly from Verduzco Bernal, which allowed them to obtain a search warrant they executed August 12 in the hotel room where he was found alone. Verduzco Bernal was in the United States on a valid visitor visa.

The case adds to a growing list of scandals surrounding the Rocha Moya administration. Just weeks earlier, the remains of Carlos Alberto Beltrán Olmeda, a former adviser to the governor and former chief administrative officer for the municipality of Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, were identified through forensic genetic testing more than a month after being found in a clandestine grave in San José del Cabo. National PRI party leader Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas called Verduzco Bernal’s arrest an “international embarrassment” and cited it as evidence of what he called ties between the Rocha Moya government and organized crime.

No information has surfaced so far directly linking Governor Rocha Moya to the fentanyl case his former official faces. President Claudia Sheinbaum recently ruled out federal intervention in Sinaloa, saying she did not consider Rocha Moya’s continued tenure a matter warranting public discussion. Verduzco Bernal faces a federal charge of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute and retains the presumption of innocence pending any conviction.

The gap between the state post Verduzco Bernal left and the undercover operation that ended in his arrest is just twelve days. Fentanyl, not sports: that is what the United States says he was distributing while still on Sinaloa’s payroll. His jury trial, set for August 26, will be the first chance to test that accusation in court.