Mexican drug cartel leaders are faced federal criminal charges in New York on Friday, after nearly 30 prisoners were extradited to the United States from Mexico.
Among them is the former leader of the Guadalajara cartel, Rafael Caro Quintero, who for decades has been wanted by the United States for the 1985 killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. Caro Quintero’s 2013 release from a Mexican prison spurred violence in Sonora, the Mexican state bordering Arizona.
The 72-year-old pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges including Camarena’s killing.
In a statement on Friday, the White House called Caro Quintero “one of the most evil cartel bosses in the world.”
Other prisoners facing charges in the United States include Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who is also accused of drug-related charges, including kidnappings and killings in Mexico. Carillo Fuentes, Caro Quintero and other prisoners who were extradited this week could face the death penalty in the United States.
In a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the United States would prosecute the cartel figures “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” Bondi said.
U.S. officials for years have wanted to charge Caro Quintero on American soil. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is the first to turn him over.
Sheinbaum did not directly address the massive extradition of prisoners in her daily morning press conference with reporters Friday. But she did say that meetings in Washington D.C. between U.S. and Mexican cabinet members are going well.
“They established the principles of coordination and collaboration,” Sheinbaum said.
President Donald Trump is threatening Mexico with a 25% tariff on all exports to the U.S., which is set to go into effect on Tuesday and would be a blow for Mexico’s export-heavy economy. Sheinbaum’s government hopes to reach an agreement with the United States to stop that from happening or to again delay the tariff, which was initially supposed to go into effect in early February.
Those tariffs are motivating Mexico’s decision to hand over the prisoners, said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo. He sees the extraditions as an important win for Donald Trump. But the decision could have serious consequences for Mexico. Saucedo said it’s likely that cartel bosses will commit violent acts in revenge for the extraditions.
Cartel leaders in Mexico now may see their futures branching out in two possible ways, Saucedo said: dying in a maximum security prison or by the death penalty in the United States, or dying fighting in Mexico.
“Many of these narcotraffickers would rather have an all-out war than be extradited to the United States,” Saucedo said.
That mentality could worsen violence in parts of Mexico already under the painful grip of drug cartels.
