Mexico transferred 37 cartel detainees to the United States on Tuesday, the latest move as the Trump administration increases pressure on foreign governments to crack down on 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 the latest transfer, Mexico has now sent 92 cartel figures to the U.S., he said.
Video and photos released by Mexican authorities showed handcuffed prisoners surrounded by heavily armed, masked officers as they were loaded onto a military jet near Mexico City.
Mexican officials said the group included 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. 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 said.
The transfer comes as President Donald Trump has sharpened his rhetoric against drug cartels, including floating the possibility of U.S. military action. Those comments followed 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.”
Mexico first sent 29 cartel figures to the U.S. last February, including notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who is wanted for the 1985 killing of a U.S. DEA agent. A second transfer in August included 26 cartel members from multiple organizations.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, however, again rejected the idea of U.S. intervention, signaling that her government wants continued security cooperation, but on Mexico’s terms.
Trump “still insisted that if we ask for it, they could help” with military forces, Sheinbaum said, adding that she rejected the offer again:
“We told him, so far it’s going very well, it’s not necessary, and furthermore there is Mexico’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and he understood.”
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