Mexico sends 29 drug cartel members to the US amid Trump tariff threat
Mexico has sent 29 drug cartel figures to the US, including most-wanted drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on the criminal gangs.
The surprise handover — one of the biggest extraditions in Mexico’s history — comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington trying to head off US President Donald Trump’s threat of imposing 25% tariffs on all Mexican imports, which are set to start on Tuesday.
The 29 people sent to the US on Thursday included jailed convicts and others accused of links to drug cartels. The prisoners — who were flown to eight US cities — faced charges related to drug trafficking and, in some cases, homicide among other crimes, according to prosecutors from both countries.
Among them were members of five of the six Mexican drug cartels designated earlier this month by the Trump administration as “foreign terrorist organizations”.
Besides Caro Quintero — the 72-year-old co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel — were other gang leaders, security chiefs from both factions of the Sinaloa cartel, and a man wanted in connection with the killing of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy in 2022.
“We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honour of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers — and in some cases, given their lives — to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels,” US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
It is unclear whether Mexico adhered to formal extradition procedures, with the government referring to the handover as a “transfer” in a statement.
Long-time target
The handover of Caro Quintero, a fugitive on the FBI’s most-wanted list, was weeks in the making.
He had walked free in 2013 after 28 years in prison when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 killing of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. The brutal murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations.
Caro Quintero had since returned to drug trafficking and unleashed bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora until he was arrested by Mexican forces in 2022, after a dog found him hiding in some bushes. On Thursday, he was flown to New York, where he has been indicted on drug trafficking charges.
DEA Acting Administrator Derek Maltz said it was a “victory for the Camarena family”.
“Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable,” he said.
Also among those removed were two leaders of the now-defunct Los Zetas cartel, Miguel Treviño Morales and his brother Omar Treviño Morales, known as Z-40 and Z-42. The pair have been accused by US authorities of running the successor Northeast Cartel from prison.
The removal of the brothers marks the end of a long process that began after the capture in 2013 of Miguel, and two years later of Omar. Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero had described the delay as “truly shameful”.
The handover of the drug cartel figures coincided with a visit to Washington by Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente and other top economic and military officials, who met with their counterparts, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In return for delaying tariffs, Trump had insisted that Mexico crack down on cartels, yasa dışı immigration and fentanyl production, despite significant decreases in migration and drug use in the US over the past year.
