Mexico announced this Thursday the extradition to the United States of 29 prominent drug traffickers who were imprisoned in different prisons in the country. Among them is the boss Rafael Caro Quinterowho at the time was the leader of the Guadalajara cartel and the most wanted drug trafficker by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for being responsible for the murder of one of its agents. A movement that comes amid pressure from the president’s government Donald Trump to impose tariffs on Mexico.
The trafficking of fentanyl, migrants and security issues are the unresolved problems with which the Republican president has pressured Mexico and Canada to show concrete measures within a month. If both countries did not meet his demands, he would impose 25% tariffs on their products starting March 4. The Government of Claudia Sheinbaum has chosen to appease Trump by sending almost ten prominent drug trafficking figures to the United States, as confirmed by the White House and the National Palace.
The list of extradited persons includes Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, Tony Montanabrother of the current leader of the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel; or the former leaders of Los Zetas, Miguel Ángel and Omar Trevino Morales. Also José Ángel Canobbioknown as The Güeritoright hand man of Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa cartel headed by the sons of Chapo Guzmán. According to Mexican Government sources, this is an “unprecedented” operation in the history of the fight against drug trafficking.
‘El Güerito’, arrested on February 19.
Ministry of Defense of Mexico
Rafael Caro Quintero, 72 years old, had been in a prison in the central State of Mexico for twenty months. The old boss was known as the “narco of narcos” during the 1980s and its transfer occurs at a key moment in which trafficking in weapons or fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States, has become a serious problem. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that his case had become an obsession among DEA agents.
The extradition of the drug trafficker, according to the agency Efecould enter inside a comprehensive package of security measures between both countries to demonstrate the willingness of Sheimbaun and his Government to collaborate with Trump. An American source familiar with the operation and cited by Reuters has defined the massive operation as a gesture of “good faith” by the Mexican Executive, which has described it as a “transfer.” Delegations from both countries met on Thursday in Washington to ease tensions.
Other prominent drug figures who have been sent to the US this Thursday are Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, The Viceroybrother of the historical capo Amado Carrillo Fuentes (known as The Lord of the Skies) and heir to the Juárez Cartel; José Alberto García Vilano, The Kenaleader of the Los Ciclones group, one of the splinters of the Gulf cartel; José Jesús Méndez Vargas, Chango Mendezfounder and leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel; either José Rodolfo Villarreal Hernández, The Catplaza boss of the Beltrán Leyva cartel. They have been sent to eight US destinations, including Phoenix, Chicago, Houston and Washington.
“As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups and this Department of Justice is dedicated to destroying them,” Bondi said. “We will prosecute these criminals with the full weight of the law “to honor the brave law enforcement officers who have dedicated their careers—and in some cases, given their lives—to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels.”
murder of Kiki Camarena
Caro Quintero is surrounded by legends as great as his criminal record. It is said that he accumulated a fortune of almost 500 million dollars and that offered to pay Mexico’s foreign debt in exchange for letting him operate.
The founder and leader of the Guadalajara cartel was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarenawhich is why the Americans offered up to a $20 million reward for his capture, and for the Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala in 1985.
Although after his first arrest, in Costa Rica that same year, he was sentenced by the Mexican Justice, In 2013 he was free after several cases against him were dismissed. An error in the process for Camarena’s murder left the sentence void and, two years later, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) reversed the decision. But he was already at ease. Hours after being arrested again in 2022, a military helicopter with 14 Mexican soldiers who had participated in the capture crashed near the city of Los Mochis.
On February 22, a collegiate court confirmed the ex officio suspension granted to Caro Quintero, which prevented his transfer to the United States. This, according to Caro Quintero’s defense, occurred because he was intended to be transferred to US territory without the extradition trial against him having concluded, which began in 2022. This Thursday everything changed in that “unprecedented” operation.
“This is a really important moment and marks a true turning point“, said Ray Donovan, former DEA chief of operations, according to The New York Times. “This demonstrates President Sheinbaum’s willingness to work with us to attack and dismantle criminal organizations that have impacted the United States and Mexico for generations.”