The Mexican government transferred 26 drug cartel leaders—including one man wanted for murdering a sheriff’s deputy in California—to U.S. custody Tuesday as part of a deal with the Trump administration. The men will be tried in U.S. federal court for their role in drug trafficking and other criminal activity, although the deal required the government not seek the death penalty during their sentencing.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that all 26 men had “played a role in bringing violence and drugs to American shores,” and assured the public that “they will face severe consequences for their crimes against this country.”
The U.S. has been pressuring Mexico to step up enforcement on cross-border organized crime, with President Donald Trump threatening to hit the country with additional tariffs of up to 30 percent if no progress is made. In response, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has periodically transferred wanted criminals in Mexican custody to U.S. authorities, including 29 in February. She has also deployed troops from the Mexican National Guard to crime hotspots near the border and recently pushed through legislation intended to beef up the intelligence and investigative capacities of Mexican law enforcement and coordinate national, state, and local police responses to organized crime.
Despite reports of Trump authorizing military deployments against cartels in Mexico, Sheinbaum has rejected suggestions that the U.S. military will intervene in the country. “The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” she said last week. “We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion.”
