The Sinaloa Cartel in the Epstein Files, and the footnote no one is paying attention to
The Sinaloa mention is brief, buried, and easy to miss, until you trace the names it appears alongside.
The contents of the Epstein files are undoubtedly the clearest evidence of how corrupt the world order system is. So much so that the millions of documents expose such an intricate network that journalists, investigators, and curious minds have had their eyes glued to their screens for a week.
However, amid all the scandal, the footnotes—often crucial—are getting lost in the noise. One of them is the mention of the Sinaloa Cartel in the complaint summaries. That mention appears alongside the phrase “high-profile sex parties and dealings with cartels.”
Are we surprised by the association of violence, sex, abuse, and drugs with the Sinaloa Cartel? No. Are we struck by the focus on Epstein’s tentacles further south of the border? Absolutely.
Let us explain why.
What the Sinaloa Cartel is, and why its name matters here
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the oldest criminal organizations in the region, with its first generation dating back to the 1960s. After strengthening itself during the 1980s and forging a key alliance with the Juárez Cartel in the 1990s, it expanded its influence across the continent. The diversification of the drugs it trafficked—including fentanyl—put it at the centre of international trafficking.
But the mainstream media and the general public became acutely aware of the cartel because of the role played by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, considered in 2003 to be Mexico’s biggest drug trafficker. El Chapo became the second most wanted man in the world after Osama Bin Laden.
Guzmán was captured in 1993, 2014, and 2015, successfully escaping each time. He was finally arrested on January 8, 2016, and extradited to the United States in January 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term. El Chapo was tried and sentenced in February 2019 and is currently serving a life sentence.
Up to that point, everything made more or less sense.
The 2025 turn: Ovidio Guzmán’s family crosses into the U.S.
However, in May 2025, Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed that relatives of Ovidio Guzmán, El Chapo’s son, crossed the border into the United States with 17 members of his family to surrender to U.S. authorities after negotiations.
García Harfuch assured that “the family that left were not targets and were not sought by Mexican authorities.”
Independent journalist Luis Chaparro confirmed the number of 17 family members, including Ovidio’s mother and a sister, who flew from Sinaloa to Tijuana and crossed on foot on May 9, 2025, over the bridge to San Diego, California, where U.S. authorities were waiting to take them to an “unknown destination.”
According to reports, among the 17 family members who surrendered to the United States is Griselda López Pérez, ex-wife of “El Chapo” and mother of “El Ratón.” Grisel Guzmán López, another daughter of “El Chapo,” was also among those who surrendered.
In January, lawyers for Ovidio Guzmán—who is on trial in a Chicago court—confirmed that both he and another son, Joaquín Guzmán López, were in negotiations with U.S. authorities. A few days ago, it was learned that Ovidio will plead guilty to charges of money laundering, conspiracy to traffic drugs, and illegal possession of firearms after reaching an agreement.
García Harfuch added that Ovidio Guzmán is making accusations against members of other criminal groups and, therefore, considered it “obvious” that part of the cooperation agreement with the authorities included removing his family from Sinaloa, where a violent battle is being waged between factions of the cartel.
However, there were still gaps in the story that millions of documents subsequently filled.
Epstein enters: Mexico in the newly released files
The new batch of documents released last Friday contains references to Mexico and some prominent figures in the country. Mexico appears multiple times in the three million pages released Friday by the Department of Justice. Visits to Puerto Vallarta, Tulum, and Cancún are described, as well as parties with models in these destinations.
For example, in several email chains, developer Gino Yu invites Jeffrey Epstein to finance the construction of a research laboratory in Tulum, but also indicates that they could organise “one of the best parties” at that location.
Among the documents released by the Department of Justice is a complaint received by the FBI on July 19, 2019, when Epstein was already in prison in New York and a few weeks before his suicide.
A U.S. citizen, identified as Kenneth Darrell Turner, provided information about an alleged child sex trafficking ring involving Richard Marcinko, former commander of the Navy SEALs—an elite U.S. Navy team—and Earl Wayne Anthony, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
According to the complaint, Turner and the Mexican federal police found a “vault” containing approximately 10,000 videos of minors from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and some white girls who had allegedly been brought to Mexico from South Africa.
In his complaint, Turner states that at one of Marcinko’s secret locations, Turner and federal police found sex tapes and videos featuring Jeffrey Epstein, which were allegedly to be used to blackmail the financier who died in custody.
Turner claimed that he spoke with then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and discussed his findings with him.
“Turner stated that the Mexican president gave him the ‘go-ahead’ to contact the FBI and let them know that he had this information,” the document states.
In another document dated October 9, 2019, an FBI agent assigned to the case reported that Turner claimed to be working with Mexican authorities and a former African official.
Turner, according to the document, claimed that Marcinko was in the custody of Mexican authorities on charges related to a child sexual abuse network and that a Mexican official identified only as “Jorge” had in his possession recordings of Epstein and other U.S. citizens involved in sexual acts with children.
However, the author of this report stated that Turner had not provided any evidence to support his allegations.
A Sinaloa cartel witness links Trump to recordings and sex parties
In another complaint filed with the FBI on June 11, 2021, an alleged member of the Sinaloa cartel claims to have recordings of the U.S. president and Epstein discussing marketing strategies for sex parties at a Trump golf course.
According to the document, the complainant was a member of the Sinaloa Cartel and worked closely with Epstein and his partner and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, which enabled him to leave the organisation.
“In the recordings, Trump stated that he was aware of the sex parties involving minors and charged the expenses to the golf course’s operating funds to finance the sex parties,” the document states.
The witness claims to have seen Robin Leach, a British television presenter, strangle a girl during one of these parties. The whistleblower claims he was aware of at least three occasions when girls were murdered and buried on the golf course, but that he received death threats if he spoke out.
The Ricardo Salinas Pliego mention
The documents also show that Epstein met Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who boasted of having a security team of 300 people.
According to an email sent to an unknown recipient on April 15, 2016, Epstein said he sat next to the owner of TV Azteca and Grupo Salinas at a dinner hosted by John Brockman—one of New York’s most influential literary editors—two years earlier.
“He told me he had 300 (people) in security for his family. That says it all,” the New York financier wrote about his encounter with Salinas Pliego.
In a subsequent message, Epstein recounts that Salinas Pliego told him he had an “island somewhere.”
Trump appears repeatedly, including alongside Sinaloa and Robin Leach
President Donald Trump was named 87 times in one of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, including a party where someone from the Sinaloa Cartel was also allegedly present.
British television presenter Robin Leach is also mentioned in connection with that party, and is accused of strangling a woman.
“A lawsuit claims to have videos of high-profile sex parties, dealings with cartels, and witnessing Robin Leach strangle a young woman to death at a party,” reads the description of document EFTA01660654.
A note in the email providing this information indicates that these are secondary allegations, not direct witnesses, and does not establish dates. Several of Epstein’s parties took place in the 1990s.
The information is part of more than three million documents released Friday by the Department of Justice, according to Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Leach was a British-American television presenter best known as the narrator of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” from 1984 to 1995.
The documents claim that Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly acted as a madam and intermediary for sex parties or orgies, with alleged participants including Epstein, Leach, and President Trump.
The file containing several documents has multiple sealed parts, including one from a person who said they had a friend—“Leslie McMichael, who was Epstein’s personal assistant in Florida from 1986 to 1991 or 1992”—who shared with them the names of some of the guests at Epstein’s parties, including Bill Clinton and Trump.
Clinton’s name appears 11 times in the document containing parts of witness testimony about Epstein’s parties and events.
Another testimony alleges that at a party at Epstein’s mansion, there was an orgy in which Clinton and Trump were together.
The same testimony claims that a character referred to as Oren “raped her best friend, and a third brother, Tal, raped a 14-year-old girl named Katie LNU.” Adult Victoria’s Secret models were also allegedly at the parties.
A party in New Jersey, and a separate allegation involving a 13–14-year-old
Another mention of President Trump includes an allegation of sexual abuse against a 13–14-year-old girl, who was allegedly forced to perform oral sex on the now-president, who was 35 at the time.
“The friend told Alexis that she was approximately 13–14 years old when this occurred, and the friend claims that she bit President Trump… The friend was apparently hit in the face after laughing about biting President Trump,” reads one of the summaries of the allegations, marked EFTA01660679.
Another statement refers to another victim who claimed to have knowledge of multiple crimes on planes and in different states.
“[The victim] said there are recordings of prominent men, such as Epstein, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, and that Ghislaine Maxwell is also in those videos,” says another document.
The “sex party” claim involving Sinaloa, and the reliability caveat
In document EFTA01660651, the government listed some of the activities and allegations that were made and included in the files released Friday by the U.S. government.
The files indicate that President Trump was at an Epstein “sex party” with members of the Sinaloa Cartel, which he himself declared a terrorist organization right after negotiating with them. However, the document does not indicate who was present or when the event occurred.
The complaint states that there is a video of the alleged meeting between Trump and members of the Mexican drug cartel.
However, the documents indicate that the person who provided this information was unreliable and that mandatory psychiatric evaluations were requested.
This is where the “footnote” becomes the story
Because the Epstein files are not just a catalogue of individual depravity. They are a map of proximity: to power, to money, to institutions, and to the kinds of networks that rarely leave a paper trail clean enough for the public to understand in real time.
And when the Sinaloa Cartel shows up in the same breath as allegations involving sex parties, recordings, and prominent names, it’s almost impossible not to connect the dots.