Mexico has sent 26 inmates suspected of playing high-profile roles in some of the country’s most powerful drug cartels to the US, the second transfer of its kind this year.
US officials said the individuals extradited included “key operatives” of major drugs gangs, and have been charged with violent offences or links to organised crime in American courts.
Mexico said the individuals – who have not been publicly identified – represented “a permanent risk to public security”.
The latest prisoner transfer came as the White House continued to put pressure on its southern neighbour to crack down on drug trafficking across the shared border, including by imposing tariffs on some products.
Mexican officials said they had agreed the inmates could be sent to the US as long as none were considered eligible for the death penalty, a condition successive governments have insisted on when considering extraditions.
The US embassy in Mexico said members of two of the country’s most prominent organised crime organisations – the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) and Sinaloa Cartel – were among those being moved to American prisons.
One of the prisoners reportedly being transferred, Roberto Salazar, is alleged to have murdered an LA County sheriff’s deputy.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mexico’s attorney general’s office said it was extraditing a woman accused of transporting drugs across the border in 2016 and 2017. It was unclear whether the woman – named only as Rosa A – was included in the group of 26 confirmed later in the day.
In February, Mexico sent 29 prisoners wanted over links to cartels to the US, one of the biggest extraditions in the country’s history.
Among those transferred was Caro Quintero, a founding members of the Guadalajara Cartel, who is accused of murdering Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena in 1985.
The criminals involved in the latest transfer may be less well-known than those involved in February, but they are still considered significant figures by US authorities.
They reportedly include Abigael González Valencia – alias El Cuini – who is the brother-in-law of the group’s leader, Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, and said to be a top financial boss for the cartel.
The prisoner transfer was the latest move from a Mexican government seeking to respond to the White House’s demands for stronger action against the cartels.
Last week, President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected reports that US President Donald Trump had authorised US agents to target cartel leaders within Mexico.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” she said on Friday. “We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”
But the latest mass extradition showed continued collaboration between Mexico and the US on the issue of fentanyl trafficking.
Sheinbaum was expected to hold the latest extraditions up as proof that her government was working hard on the security issue, should Trump again threaten to impose tariffs over the question of smuggling across the border.
BBC News has contacted the US Department of Justice for comment.
