Mexico despatched 26 high-ranking cartel figures to the USA Tuesday within the newest main cope with the Trump administration as American authorities ratchet up stress on legal networks smuggling medicine throughout the border.
These handed over to U.S. custody embody Abigael González Valencia, a pacesetter of “Los Cuinis,” a bunch intently aligned with infamous cartel Jalisco New Era, or CJNG. One other defendant, Roberto Salazar, is needed in connection to the 2008 killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Different distinguished figures have ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and different violent drug trafficking teams.
The transfers are a milestone for the Trump administration, which has made dismantling harmful drug cartels a key Justice Division precedence. It is the second time in months that Mexico has expelled cartel figures accused of narcotics smuggling, homicide and different crimes amid mounting stress from the Trump administration to curb the move of medication onto American streets.
“These 26 males have all performed a task in bringing violence and medicines to American shores — underneath this Division of Justice, they’ll face extreme penalties for his or her crimes in opposition to this nation,” Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi stated in a press release. “We’re grateful to Mexico’s Nationwide Safety group for his or her collaboration on this matter.”
In February, President Trump signed an government order designating CJNG, Sinaloa and 6 different cartels — Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel del Noreste (previously Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos — as overseas terrorist organizations.
The cartel figures had been placed on planes to the U.S. after the Justice Division agreed to not search the dying penalty in opposition to any of the defendants or in opposition to any cartel leaders and members despatched to the U.S. in February. That switch was of 29 cartel figures, together with drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985.
“This switch is yet one more instance of what’s doable when two governments stand united in opposition to violence and impunity,” U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson stated in a press release. “These fugitives will now face justice in U.S. courts, and the residents of each of our nations might be safer from these frequent enemies.”
The February transfers got here as Mexican officers had been attempting to move off the Trump administration’s menace of imposing tariffs on Mexican imports. Late final month, President Trump spoke with Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum and agreed to place off threatened 30% tariffs for an additional 90 days to permit for negotiations.
Sheinbaum has proven a willingness to cooperate extra on safety than her predecessor, particularly being extra aggressive in pursuit of Mexico’s cartels. However she has drawn a transparent line in relation to Mexico’s sovereignty, rejecting recommendations by Mr. Trump and others of intervention by the U.S. navy.
Final week, a supply aware of the matter confirmed to CBS Information that Mr. Trump directed the navy to focus on drug cartels in Latin America. Sheinbaum responded Friday by saying there can be “no invasion of Mexico.”
Additionally included within the group expelled Tuesday was Servando Gómez Martinez, also called “La Tuta,” a former college trainer who turned one in all Mexico’s most-wanted drug lords as head of the Knights Templar cartel. He was captured in 2015 and sentenced to 55 years in a Mexican jail in June 2019.
Eduardo Verdugo / AP
Gomez led the quasi-religious legal group that when exercised absolute management over Michoacan and he appreciated to seem in interviews and movies. The cartel orchestrated politics, managed commerce, dictated guidelines and preached a code of ethics round devotion to God and household, even because it murdered and plundered.
Abigael González Valencia is the brother-in-law of CJNG chief Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, a high goal of the U.S. authorities. Abigael González Valencia was arrested in February 2015 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco and had been preventing extradition to the USA since then. The U.S. authorities has supplied a reward of as much as $15 million for data resulting in “El Mencho’s” arrest or conviction.
Alongside his two brothers, Abigael González Valencia led “Los Cuinis,” which financed the founding and progress of the CJNG, one of the crucial highly effective and harmful cartels in Mexico. CJNG traffics a whole lot of tons of cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the USA and different international locations and is understood for excessive violence, murders, torture, and corruption.
One in all his brothers, José González Valencia, was sentenced in Washington’s federal courtroom in June to 30 years in a U.S. jail after pleading responsible to worldwide cocaine trafficking. Jose González Valencia was arrested in 2017 underneath the primary Trump administration at a seaside resort in Brazil whereas vacationing along with his household underneath a pretend identify.
