Mexico extradites 26 inmates wanted over cartel links to US

Mexico sent 26 detainees suspected of having played high-level roles in some of the country’s most powerful drug cartels in the United States, the second transfer of this type this year.

US officials said extra -filled individuals included “key agents” with large drug gangs and have been accused of violent offenses or links with organized crime.

Mexico said that individuals – who had not been publicly identified – represented “a permanent risk to public security”.

The last transfer of prisoner came while the White House continued to put pressure on his southern neighbor to suppress drug trafficking across the shared border, including by imposing prices on certain products.

Mexican officials said they had agreed that prisoners could be sent to the United States as long as no one was considered eligible for the death penalty, a condition that successive governments insisted during the extradition examination.

The United States Embassy in Mexico said that members of two of the country’s most important organized criminal organizations – Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) and the Sinaloa cartel – were one of those transferred to American prisons.

One of the prisoners would have been transferred, Roberto Salazar, would have assassinated an assistant from a sheriff of the County of Los Angeles.

Earlier Tuesday, the office of the Attorney General of Mexico declared that he extradited a woman accused of transporting drugs across the border in 2016 and 2017. It was not clear if the woman – named Rosa A – was included in the 26 group confirmed later in the day.

In February, Mexico sent 29 prisoners sought on links with cartels with the United States, one of the largest extraditions in the history of the country.

Among the transferred persons was Caro Quintero, a founding member of the Guadalajara cartel, who is accused of the murder of the Drug Agent (DEA) Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.

The criminals involved in the latest transfer can be less known than those involved in February, but they are still considered important figures from the American authorities.

They would have included Abigael González Valencia – alias El Cuini – who is the brother -in -law of the group’s leader, Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, and say they are a high -level financial pattern for the cartel.

The transfer of prisoners was the last decision of a Mexican government seeking to respond to the requests of the White House for a stronger action against the cartels.

Last week, President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected the information that US President Donald Trump authorized American agents to target cartel leaders in Mexico.

“The United States will not come to Mexico with the military,” she said on Friday. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there will not be an invasion. This is excluded, absolutely excluded.”

But the last mass extradition showed continuous collaboration between Mexico and the United States on the issue of fentanyl traffic.

Sheinbaum had to hold the latest extraditions as proof that his government worked hard on the issue of security, if Trump will again threaten to impose prices on the issue of smuggling through the border.

BBC News contacted the US Ministry of Justice for Comments.