Mexico confirms Sinaloa cartel family members entered US in a deal with Trump admin
A truck burns on a street in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Urista, file)
The news comes on the same day that US Attorney General Pam Bondi's office announced that top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel were being charged with '
narcoterrorism
.' Sinaloa Cartel is a powerful Mexican drug trafficking organization
.
Mexico's security chief confirmed Tuesday that 17 family members of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S. last week as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed a report by independent journalist Luis Chaparro that family members of Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who was extradited to the United States in 2023, had entered the U.S.
Guzmán Lopez is one of the brothers left running a faction of the
Sinaloa Cartel
after notorious capo Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán was imprisoned in the U.S. Video showed the family members walking across the border from Tijuana with their suitcases to waiting U.S. agents.
Rumors had circulated last week that the younger Guzmán would plead guilty to avoid trial for several drug trafficking charges in the U.S. after being extradited in 2023.
García Harfuch confirmed the family members' crossing in a radio interview and said it was clear to Mexican authorities that they were doing so after negotiations between Guzmán López and the U.S. government.
He believed that was the case because the former cartel boss, whose lawyer said in January he had entered negotiations with U.S. authorities, had been pointing fingers at members of other criminal organizations likely as part of a cooperation agreement.
'It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a negotiation or an offer that the Department of Justice is giving him,' Garcia Harfuch said.
He said that none of the family members were being pursued by Mexican authorities and that the government of U.S. President Donald Trump 'has to share information' with Mexican prosecutors, something it has not yet done.
The confirmation by García Harfuch comes the same day that the U.S. Attorney General's Office announced it was charging a number of top cartel leaders with 'narcoterrorism' for the first time since the Trump administration declared a number of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
While prosecutors declined to comment on the video of the family, U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California and other officials sent a warning to cartel members, repeatedly citing the Sinaloa Cartel by name.
'Let me be direct, to the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, you are no longer the hunters, you are the hunted. You will be betrayed by your friends, you will be hounded by your enemies, and you will ultimately find yourself and your face here in a courtroom in the Southern District of California,' Gordon said.
AP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Cedar News
a day ago
- Cedar News
Supreme Court Allows Trump to Strip 500K Migrants of Legal Status
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 in favor of the Trump administration, granting the Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, the authority to revoke parole protections granted under President Biden. The decision impacts more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who were protected under the CHNV progra This program had provided temporary legal status and work permits to 532,000 individuals. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in the ruling. The decision is effective immediately and may result in deportations, although litigation is expected to continue in lower courts.
Nahar Net
a day ago
- Nahar Net
Iran says US nuclear deal isn't imminent, enrichment program must continue
by Naharnet Newsdesk 30 May 2025, 16:20 Senior Iranian officials on Thursday dismissed speculation about an imminent nuclear deal with the United States, emphasizing that any agreement must fully lift sanctions and allow the country's nuclear program to continue. "Iran is sincere about a diplomatic solution that will serve the interests of all sides. But getting there requires an agreement that will fully terminate all sanctions and uphold Iran's nuclear rights—including enrichment," Abbas Araghchi, the country's foreign minister, wrote in a post on the X. Ali Shamkhani, a top advisor to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on X that previous U.S. presidents also had "fantasies" destroying Iran's nuclear infrastructure, and warned that Iran has strong defenses and "clear red lines." "Talks serve progress, interests, and dignity, not coercion or surrender," he said. The comments came a day after President Donald Trump said he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on striking Iran to give the U.S. administration more time to push for a new nuclear deal with Tehran. The Israeli prime minister's office did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's program, if a deal isn't reached, while Iranian officials counter they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium. Other Iranian hard-liners had harsher words for Trump. "What Trump says about a deal with Iran to dismantle nuclear facilities is a combination of 'illusion,' 'bluff,' 'delirium,' and 'confusion,'" Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander in the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard, said in a post on X. The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic, which have acrimonious ties for nearly a half-century. The U.S. and Iran have held five rounds of talks in Oman and Rome over the past few weeks. Last Friday, the most recent round of talks, Omani mediator and Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said Iran and the United States made " some but not conclusive progress " and that more negotiations are needed. Trump's comments came as the head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog said "the jury is still out" on negotiations between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency were in Tehran this week, and Iranian President President Masoud Pezeshkian was in Oman this week for a state visit,
MTV Lebanon
2 days ago
- MTV Lebanon
US Trade Court Blocks Tariffs in Major Setback for Trump
The opinion marks a significant setback to Trump as he bids to redraw the US trading relationship with the world by forcing governments to the negotiating table through tough new tariffs. Trump's global trade war has roiled financial markets with a stop-start rollout of import levies aimed at punishing economies that sell more to the United States than they buy. Trump argued that the resulting trade deficits and the threat posed by the influx of drugs constituted a "national emergency" that justified widespread tariffs. But the three-judge Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump had overstepped his authority, barring most of the duties announced since he took office in January. The White House slammed the ruling, arguing that "unelected judges" have no right to weigh in on Trump's handling of the issue. "President Trump pledged to put America first, and the administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American greatness," Trump's spokesman Kush Desai said. Attorneys for the Trump administration promptly filed to appeal against the ruling Wednesday. China: 'cancel wrongful tariffs' The ruling comes as Trump has used the tariffs as leverage in trade negotiations with friends and foes, including the European Union and China. Beijing -- which was hit by 145 percent tariffs before they were sharply reduced to give space for negotiations -- reacted to the court ruling by saying the United States should scrap the levies. "China urges the United States to heed the rational voices from the international community and domestic stakeholders and fully cancel the wrongful unilateral tariff measures," said commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian. Japan's tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa said as he left for a fourth round of talks in Washington that Tokyo -- reeling from tariffs on cars -- would study the ruling. Trump unveiled sweeping import duties on nearly all trading partners on April 2, at a baseline 10 percent, plus steeper levies on dozens of economies, including China and the European Union. The ruling also quashes duties that Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China separately using emergency powers. Some of the turmoil was calmed after he paused the larger tariffs for 90 days and suspended other duties, pending negotiations with individual countries and blocs. Asian markets rallied on Thursday and US futures pointed to early gains, but Europe was mixed, with London in the red while Paris and Frankfurt rose. The ruling "throws into disarray several trade deals that have already been agreed, and those that are still in the negotiation phase," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB brokerage firm. 'Extraordinary threat' The federal trade court was ruling in two separate cases -- brought by businesses and a coalition of state governments -- arguing that the president had violated Congress's power of the purse. "The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 ("IEEPA") delegates these powers to the president in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world," the three-judge panel wrote in an unsigned opinion. "The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder." The judges stated that any interpretation of the IEEPA that "delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional." The IEEPA authorizes the president to impose necessary economic sanctions during an emergency "to combat an unusual and extraordinary threat," the bench said. The ruling gave the White House 10 days to complete the bureaucratic process of halting the tariffs. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the ruling confirmed that "these tariffs are an illegal abuse of executive power." "Trump's declaration of a bogus national emergency to justify his global trade war was an absurd and unlawful use of IEEPA," he said. White House aide Stephen Miller took to social media to decry a "judicial coup" that he said was "out of control."
