Mexico has handed over the US 29 drug cartel figures, including one of the FBI’s most wanted Rafael Caro Quintero. The handover is expected to take effect from US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on Mexico’s imports.
Trump has long been aiming for what he says Mexico hasn’t had control over the drug cartel. He calls them “quasi-governmental organizations” in some parts of the country, and has recently criticised the US for the highly addictive fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.
A statement from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office stated, “This action is part of efforts to coordinate, cooperate and bilateral interaction within the framework of respect for the sovereignty of both countries.”
There are details on what happened and why this is happening now.
What did Mexico agree to do?
Mexico handed over 29 cartel figures on Thursday, which had already been held in Mexican prisons. They boarded planes at an airport north of Mexico City and were taken to eight US cities, a news agency cited by the Mexican government said.
The United States confirmed that 29 prisoners were detained in a statement by Attorney General Pamela Bondy. There is no details to date about where they are kept.
The U.S. Department of Justice has released a list of federal courts in which 29 defendants will be charged, but it is unclear when this will happen. They all face charges of assault, drug trafficking, murder, illegal use of firearms, money laundering and more.
At least two far-away men will be brought in to federal court in Brooklyn on Friday, according to an unknown source who spoke to the Reuters news agency.
This is the extradition of Mexico’s largest prisoner over the years. Between 2019 and 2023, Mexico handed over about 65 people to the United States, Reuters reported.
It is unclear whether the Mexican government followed the formal extradition process after calling the operation a “transfer.”
Who was deported from Mexico to the US?
The U.S. Department of Justice has released a list of 29 defendants.
According to the Justice Department, there was the most powerful cartel leaders involved in the cocaine-heroin trade decades ago, and the new “Narcos” accused of moving fentanyl to the United States. Narco is someone involved in illegal drug trafficking.
Some of the people handed over to the United States are:
Karo Kintero
Caro Quintero, 72, is co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, known for shipping marijuana to the United States, and was convicted of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Bureau’s murder office in 1985. Guadalajara was one of the most powerful cartels in Latin America in the 1980s and did business with Pablo Escobar, the late Colombian drug lord.
After Camarena’s conviction for the 1985 stake in the 1985 stake in the murder, he concluded that he remained in prison until 2013, when the court overturned his 40-year sentence, and was inappropriately tried. He returned to drug trafficking and is said to have remained full length for years, but the US attempted to hand him over and offered a $20 million reward for his arrest.
Caro Quintero was re-registered in Mexico by the Mexican Navy in 2022. He is one of the suspects expected to appear in Brooklyn Court on Friday.
Trevino Brothers
Mexican media reports that two former leaders, the former leaders of the late Los Zetas Cartel, the brothers Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, also known as Z-40, and Omar Trevino Morales, also known as Z-42, have been handed over to the United States as well.
Mexican authorities arrested Miguel, 54, on charges of organized crime, drug trafficking, torture, money laundering and illegal use of firearms in 2013. Omar, 51, was arrested on charges of money laundering and violating Mexico’s Federal Firearms Act in 2015.
The US accused the Trevino brothers of running Zeta shard factions from prison, the Northeast Cartel.
Antonio Cervantes and El Gerrito
US authorities have identified the new generation of Jalisco cartels and the Sinaloa cartels as responsible for bringing fentanyl to the United States in recent years.
Jalisco leader Antonio Osseguera Cervantes (66) was also handed over to the United States. Cervantes is the brother of Nemesio Ossegura Cervantes, a drug lord also known as “Elmencho.” The US offers a $15 million reward for information about Elmencho’s whereabouts.
Mexican media and Reuters reported that Canobubio, a Sinaloa cartel, was also handed over to US authorities on Thursday.
Why is this happening now?
Trump announced a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada in an executive order signed on February 1. On Thursday, the president confirmed that tariffs will come into effect on Tuesday.
Trump said one reason for the tariffs was the failure of Mexico and Canada that failed to prevent street drugs such as fentanyl from flowing into the United States. “Drugs are still poured into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high unacceptable levels,” he wrote in the Truth Social Post Thursday.
Additionally, on January 20th, the day he was launched, Trump signed an executive order designating an international drug cartel as a “terrorist organization.”
The text of the order states, “In certain parts of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental bodies.”
This month, the Trump administration also designated eight Latin American detectives and drug trafficking groups as “global terrorist organizations.” This was done in a Federal Registration Notice and was named a specific group, so it was different from the executive order: Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13), Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Carteles unidos, Northeast Cartel, Gulf Cartel, and Lanueva Familia Michoacana.
Mexico and Canada say they are doing everything they can to reduce the illegal drug trade.
Vanessa Albio Marquez, a pre-Fellow of the Americas Program at the London-based Chatham House think tank, said: The exception is the number of people handed over.
“We can only analyze this as a security cooperation that is occurring as a result of the tariff threat.”
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said at a press conference on January 21 that Mexico will fully cooperate with the United States to combat drug trafficking, but she does not support the prospect of the United States sending troops to enforce immoral trafficking measures. “What we are claiming is the defense of our sovereignty and independence,” she said.