Mexico City, Aug. 12 (Reuters) – Cartel members sent more than two dozen cartel members to the United States on Tuesday amid pressure on Mexico’s President Donald Trump to dismantle a powerful drug group.
Authorities have shipped 26 prisoners in the United States for connections with drug trafficking groups, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Security said in a joint statement.
Mexico has said the US Department of Justice has requested extradition and will not seek the death penalty from members of the accused cartel.
Transfers are the second type of this year. In February, Mexican authorities sent 29 cartel leaders to the United States, sparking debate over the political and legal basis for such a move.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s permission to deliver yet another massive extradition of Mexican people underscores the balanced actions he faces as he tries to appease Trump while avoiding unilateral US military action in Mexico.
In a statement, the US Embassy said among those handed over were key figures in the Jalisco new generation cartel and the Sinaloa cartel, two major organized crime groups in Mexico.
“This relocation is another example of what can be possible when two governments unite in violence and immunity,” Mexican Ambassador Ronald Johnson said in a statement. “These fugitives are now facing justice in American courts and make our nation’s citizens safer.”
Trump has linked Mexico’s tariffs to the deadly fentanyl trade, claiming the country is not taking enough aggressive approach to drug cartels. Last week he instructed the Pentagon to prepare an operation against Mexican drug gangs designated as a global terrorist organization.
Sheinbaum says the US and Mexico are approaching a security agreement to expand cooperation in the fight against the cartel. However, she completely rejected the Trump administration’s proposal that one-sided military operations could be carried out in Mexico.
(Additional reporting by Mrinmay Dey of Bengaluru, edited by Chris Reese, Cassandra Garrison, and Lincoln Feast.)
