Lawyers accuse Mexico of breaking law in sending cartel members to US without order

MEXICO CITY — A group of lawyers and family members of key cartel figures accused the Mexican government Tuesday of breaking the law by sending nearly a hundred Mexican citizens to the United States without an extradition order.

It comes less than a week after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration sent 37 detained cartel members to the United States in what observers described as a bid by Mexican authorities to thwart U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing threats to take military action against the cartels.

Since last February, Mexico has sent a total of 92 cartel members in three separate transfers to the United States, at the request of the Trump administration. It’s part of a broader strategy by Sheinbaum to crack down on cartels and maintain a positive relationship with Trump.

The transfers have been at the center of a legal debate that has only gained momentum following last week’s handover. The Mexican government maintained that the transfers were legal and carried out in the name of national security. The Trump administration said the capos were wanted for crimes committed in the United States and that many of them had pending extradition requests from the United States.

At a news conference Tuesday, lawyers for the cartel members argued they were not given due process because they were sent to the United States without an extradition order, which requires a lengthy legal process in Mexico.

“Mexico is currently under intense pressure from the United States,” said Yarey Sánchez Lagunas, the lawyer for two people transferred to the United States last year. “It forces us to seriously question whether these decisions are being used to show political results, even if it comes at the expense of due process or the rule of law. »

These arguments echo those made by lawyers for infamous capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.

Sánchez Lagunas is the defense attorney for Itiel Palacios García, a leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel sent to the United States last February, and Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, a leader of the Arellano Félix cartel in northern Mexico sent in August.

One of the partners of a regional Zetas cartel leader, Vanesa Guzmán, went so far as to file a criminal complaint against high-ranking members of the Mexican government, namely Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, who led much of the government’s crackdown on the cartel. His partner, Juan Pedro Saldívar Farías, was sent to the United States last week in the latest round of transfers and is accused of arms and drug trafficking.

Guzmán accused Harfuch and other security officials of “treason” in his complaint filed Tuesday with Mexico’s attorney general’s office, although lawyers for the transferred cartel members said they had no legal recourse in Mexico to challenge the transfers now that their clients are outside the country.

“The transfer of my partner is nothing short of exile,” she said. “To date, we have not heard from him. He has not even made the legally authorized call.”

Some, like Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former head of international operations, dismissed the complaints Tuesday and praised U.S. authorities for “fast-tracking” a legal process that is often stalled for years by lawyers who file rounds of injunctions in an effort to slow down enforcement.

Vigil noted that Mexico’s constitution authorizes the country’s president to take major actions like the one seen last week to protect national security. While Guzmán and his lawyers said the inmates posed no threat because they were already serving their sentences in Mexico, Vigil was quick to point out that capos often use Mexican prisons as centers for their criminal operations.

“Sheinbaum did it to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. government, but at the same time, she understands that these individuals, if they remain in prison there… they usually have access to their criminal organizations, by telephone,” Vigil said. “These expedited procedures are extremely helpful in ensuring that they are brought to justice. »