Enrique Inzunza Cazárez felt the cold steel of handcuffs in San Diego this Saturday as DEA agents took the Sinaloa Senator into custody. Federal prosecutors allege that Cazárez met with Los Chapitos leaders to plan government protection for the cartel. The indictment describes the Senator acting as a middlemen between the sons of El Chapo and corrupt officials in Sinaloa.

The Department of Justice alleges the Senator helped install dishonest officials to protect drug trafficking operations. His colleague, Enrique Diaz Vega, surrendered to authorities in Arizona on Friday after serving as the state’s Secretary of Administration and Finance. This sweep of the Mexican elite signals a new, aggressive phase in the American war on the Sinaloa infrastructure.

The legal ledger is growing even longer this week. Sources told CNN that the US Justice Department is also working to indict former Cuban president Raul Castro. Prosecutors are examining charges related to the 1996 downing of exile planes in international airspace. CIA Director John Ratcliffe recently led a delegation to Havana as tensions over the Cuban energy collapse reach a boiling point.

The ledger of global villains reflects a certain pattern this week. The Justice Department is no longer content with peripheral figures; it is now physically auditing the sovereign elite from the Caribbean to the Pacific.