Mexico transferred 37 cartel members to the United States on Tuesday as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on foreign governments to dismantle drug trafficking networks.
Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said the detainees were “high-impact criminals” who posed “a real threat to the country’s security.” With this latest transfer, Mexico has now sent 92 cartel figures to the U.S., he said.
Video released by Mexican authorities showed handcuffed prisoners surrounded by heavily armed, masked officers as they were loaded onto a military jet near Mexico City.
The group includes members of several major criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel, Jalisco New Generation cartel, Beltrán-Leyva cartel, the Northeast cartel and remnants of the Zetas based in Tamaulipas along the Texas border. Mexican officials said all had pending cases in U.S. courts.
Among those transferred was María del Rosario Navarro Sánchez, the first Mexican national charged in the U.S. with providing material support to a terrorist organization after allegedly conspiring with a cartel.
“This is Mexico resorting to extraordinary measures as pressure from the White House increases,” David Mora, a Mexico analyst with the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press.
The move comes as President Donald Trump has sharpened his rhetoric against drug cartels, even floating the possibility of U.S. military action, following a recent U.S. operation in Venezuela that removed former President Nicolás Maduro.
“We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this month. “The cartels are running Mexico—it’s very, very sad to watch, and see what’s happened to that country.”
MADURO-BACKED TdA GANG’S EXPANSION INTO US CITIES EMERGES AS KEY FOCUS OF SWEEPING DOJ INDICTMENT
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke with Trump last week, saying U.S. intervention in Mexico was “not necessary,” while emphasizing continued cooperation between the two countries.
Mexico first sent 29 cartel figures to the U.S. last February, including notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for the 1985 killing of a U.S. DEA agent. A second transfer in August included 26 cartel members from multiple organizations.
García Harfuch said the transfers were driven by public safety concerns, arguing that cartel leaders were continuing to run criminal operations from inside Mexican prisons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
