Mexico has now transferred over 50 drug cartel suspects to U.S. this year

CBC

a day ago

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Mexico sent more than two dozen suspected cartel members to the U.S. on Tuesday, amid rising pressure from President Donald Trump to dismantle the country's powerful drug organizations.
Authorities shipped 26 prisoners wanted in the U.S. for ties to drug-trafficking groups, Mexico's attorney general's office and Security Ministry said in a joint statement, in at least the second such major transfer this year.
Mexico said the U.S. Department of Justice had requested their extradition and that it would not seek the death penalty for the accused cartel members.
That Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum permitted yet another large-scale extradition of Mexican nationals underscores the balancing act she faces as she seeks to appease Trump while also avoiding unilateral U.S. military action in Mexico.
In a statement, the U.S. Embassy said among those extradited were key figures in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, which are Mexico's two dominant organized crime groups.
"This transfer is yet another example of what is possible when two governments unite against violence and impunity," U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said in a statement. "These fugitives will now face justice in American courts, and the citizens of both our nations will be safer."
Pressure on Mexico to co-operate
Trump has tied tariffs on Mexico to the deadly fentanyl trade, claiming the country hasn't tackled drug cartels aggressively enough. Last week, he directed the Pentagon to prepare operations against Mexican drug gangs that have been designated global terrorist organizations.
Sheinbaum has said the U.S. and Mexico are nearing a security agreement to expand co-operation in the fight against cartels. But she has flatly rejected suggestions by the Trump administration that it could carry out unilateral military operations in Mexico.
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Those handed over to U.S. custody include Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, a leader of "Los Cuinis," a group closely aligned with notorious cartel Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG. Another defendant, Roberto Salazar, is wanted in connection to the 2008 killing of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Juan Escalante.
Other prominent figures have ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and other violent drug trafficking groups, as well as a Sierra Leone national the U.S. Justice Department alleges helped smuggle thousands of migrants hailing from several countries illegally from Mexico into the U.S.
"These 26 men have all played a role in bringing violence and drugs to American shores — under this Department of Justice, they will face severe consequences for their crimes against this country," U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Mexican authorities sent 29 alleged cartel leaders to the U.S., including Caro Quintero, in February. Quintero had walked free in 2013 after 28 years in prison when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique (Kiki) Camarena. The brutal murder marked a low point in U.S.-Mexico relations, and has been documented in film and television adaptations, including the Netflix series Narcos.
The U.S. has been plagued by tens of thousands of opioid-deaths annually this century, with fentanyl fuelling the crisis in recent years.
The White House also used the flow of fentanyl into the country from Canada as leverage in trade negotiations, although the statistical evidence indicates the drug and its precursors are more likely to flow into Canada from the U.S.
While the U.S. has put heavy pressure on its main trading partners in North America, it appears the Trump administration has also made some concessions on occasion. Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch in May confirmed a report by a Mexican journalist that 17 family members of Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, who was extradited to the United States in 2023, had been granted entry into the U.S. as part of a deal with the Trump administration.