Mexico City (AFP) – Mexico announced the extradition on Thursday of 29 alleged drug traffickers to the United States, as it faces mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump to tackle fentanyl smuggling or face sweeping tariffs. The mass extradition, which reportedly included some major cartel figures, comes as Mexico seeks a deal with Washington to avoid being hit with trade duties that Trump has linked to illegal migration and drug flows.
The extraditions follow Trump’s designation of eight Latin American drug trafficking organizations — including six Mexican cartels — as terrorist organizations. The handover of so many suspects at the same time was “historic,” Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told AFP. In the past, Mexico would extradite only a few suspects at once, he said, adding: “They’re certainly hoping that it will have a positive impact on the tariff negotiations.”
The US Justice Department requested the handover, Mexico’s public security ministry and the public prosecutor’s office said in a joint statement, without naming the suspects. According to Mexican media, the former leaders of the ultra-violent Zetas cartel, Omar and Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, as well as veteran drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, who is accused of murdering an undercover US agent, were among those extradited. Caro Quintero was on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of 10 most-wanted fugitives until his capture in 2022. He was accused of ordering the kidnap, torture and killing of DEA special agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. Vigil said the agency was “celebrating” his extradition.
The Webb County Sheriff’s Office in the US state of Texas issued an alert warning of possible violence in the city of Nuevo Laredo across the border due to the extradition of the Trevino-Morales brothers. “Previous incidents have shown that the cartel tends to respond with extreme violence against Mexican government entities, which increases the risk for citizens in Nuevo Laredo,” it said on social media.
– ‘National security threat’ – The announcement came as a high-level Mexican delegation, including the foreign, defense, and security ministers, visited Washington for talks with counterparts, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two countries agreed to take an unspecified “series of coordinated actions” to tackle drug trafficking, the Mexican government said. The aim was to reduce fentanyl deaths as well as the illegal trafficking of firearms, it said.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pledged to collaborate with Washington while rejecting any “invasion” of her country’s sovereignty. She has repeatedly expressed optimism that tariffs between the two countries can be avoided, and said Thursday she hoped to speak to Trump to seal a deal. Shortly after taking office, Trump announced duties of up to 25 percent on Mexican imports, citing illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl. He issued a last-minute suspension until March 4 after Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 more troops to the Mexico-US border to tackle illegal migration and drug smuggling.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House last month, stating that the cartels “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.” The move has raised speculation about possible military action against the cartels — something that Sheinbaum has said she would oppose. Last week, Sheinbaum confirmed that the United States had been operating drones spying on Mexican cartels as part of a collaboration that has existed for years. Mexican authorities have recently announced a series of major drug seizures and announced the arrest last week of two prominent members of the Sinaloa Cartel, which was among the groups designated terrorist organizations by Trump.
© 2024 AFP
