Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party in the north-western Sinaloa state said they would temporarily step down from their posts after the United States charged them and eight other politicians and security officers with drug trafficking.

The bombshell indictment against the 10 has shaken Mexico’s political establishment.

In a short video announcement at midnight on Friday, Gov Rubén Rocha Moya, the highest-ranking official named in the indictment, denied accusations that he protected the Sinaloa cartel and helped it smuggle vast quantities of drugs into the US in exchange for political support and millions of dollars in bribes.

“My conscience is clear,” said Rocha, 76, a longtime ally of influential former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “To my people and to my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will.”

But he said he would take a temporary leave of absence from the position he has held for six years to defend himself against what he called the “false and malicious” allegations and cooperate with the Mexican government’s investigation.

Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, the mayor of the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacán named in the indictment, also said he would take leave and denied the charges. Another defendant and member of the ruling Morena party, Senator Enrique Inzunza, said he would continue serving in the Senate while defending himself from the accusations.

In a special vote Saturday, the state’s local congress appointed as interim governor Yeraldine Bonilla Valverde, an ally of Rocha who previously served as the state’s secretary of government. It approved Rocha’s leave of absence for a period of 30 days.

As serving governor and mayor, Rocha and Gámez Mendívil had enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution. But in leaving their posts even temporarily, the officials lost their blanket protection from prosecution, Arturo Zaldívar, a former Mexican supreme court justice who now advises Sheinbaum, posted on X.

“They can be detained like any person,” he wrote.

Sheinbaum has struggled to strike a balance between the interests of her progressive Morena party and pressure from US President Donald Trump to step up the fight against cartels.

In a nod to her party’s vow to stamp out corruption, Sheinbaum said she wouldn’t defend anyone found to have committed a crime.

But she vigorously defended Mexico’s sovereignty, saying that if federal authorities uncovered “irrefutable” evidence linking the 10 indicted officials to cartel crime, the accused would be tried in Mexico, not the US – a move that risks backlash from an American administration that has threatened military action against cartels on Mexican soil.

“We will never subordinate ourselves because this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people,” she said Friday.

Pending investigation, the Mexican attorney general’s office said it would not arrest Rocha or the other accused officials, as requested by the US.

Rocha, a point person for the hands-off “hugs not bullets” approach to dealing with organised crime that López Obrador pioneered and Sheinbaum has since ditched, insisted in the video that the indictment represents a political attack on Morena.

“I will not allow myself to be used to harm the movement to which I belong – one that has improved the lives of millions of Mexican men and women,” he said.

Born in the same town as the notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo”, Rocha has faced similar scandals before. In 2024, he was named in a published letter written by a then-Sinaloa cartel capo who was kidnapped by leaders of a rival faction and handed over to US law enforcement. In the letter, the capo said he was on his way to meet Rocha when he was abducted.

Mark Allen missed a simple black to book his place in his first World Snooker Championship final before falling 17-16 to Wu Yize on Saturday night in one of the most dramatic last-four finishes in Crucible history.

The 40-year-old Antrim man had the match at his mercy when he got on top of an error-strewn 32nd frame and required just the black off its spot to wrap up a 17-15 win.

But incredibly Allen rattled the pocket, leaving Wu an unexpected chance to haul level at 16-16 and set up a pressure-filled decider in front of a raucous Sheffield crowd.

Allen shut out his nightmare brilliantly, easing into a 47-point lead before an unlucky split on the reds left him out of position and ultimately let in the nerveless 22-year-old to cue up a brilliant 71 clearance to win 17-16 and set up a final against Shaun Murphy on Sunday and Monday.

A shell-shocked Allen told BBC Sport: “You don’t deserve to be in a world final if you’re missing balls like that. It was just pure pressure, to be honest. Even though I’m devastated to lose that match I think the right person’s in the final. The way he plays is great for the game, he scores heavily and pots some ridiculous long balls. He’s going to win many world titles.”

Saturday’s final two sessions provided a stunning antidote to Friday night’s notorious 100-minute frame that former champion Steve Davis had dubbed an “embarrassment”.

In a session that included two swift re-racks, Allen consistently nudged one frame clear only to be hauled back repeatedly by the free-scoring Chinese player, who drilled long reds and seemed almost impervious to the mounting pressure.

The pivotal moment looked to have arrived in frame 30 when Wu missed a simple red to the middle, letting Allen move to the verge of victory at 16-14 – only for the irresistible Wu to fire back and force the dramatic conclusion.

Earlier, Murphy twice overturned a two-frame deficit in the final session against John Higgins as he was forced to dredge up his best form to see off the 50-year-old Scot. Their clash looked nailed-on for a decider until Higgins fluffed a black on a break of 50, gifting Murphy the chance to get over the line at the second attempt.

Murphy told the BBC: “I just came out today knowing if I got my chances I could score. At the interval I was just saying to myself, ‘you’ve done it before, now you can do it again’. But John Higgins – what a player and what a man. The harder it gets out there, the tougher he gets and the better he plays. If I’m half the player when I’m in my 50s, I’ll be very proud.”

Resuming the final session 13-11 in arrears, Murphy started in scintillating fashion with two total clearances to haul level, only for the Scot to chisel out the next two to restore his two-frame lead.

Murphy’s fourth century of the match sparked another surge after the interval, and as Higgins began to miss some easy balls, the 43-year-old Murphy went into overdrive, winning the last four in succession to confirm victory.

Higgins paid tribute to Murphy, saying: “The way Shaun hit the ball in that session was incredible. He just hits it like God. I’m disappointed but what can you do. As you get older your action starts to go a little bit at the most extreme points of the match, but take nothing away, Shaun was awesome and he’s got a great chance of going on to win it for a second time.”