Mexico sends 37 cartel members to U.S. amid pressure from Trump administration

Mexico’s security minister said Tuesday that it had sent another 37 members of Mexican drug cartels to the United States, as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure on governments to crack down on criminal networks it says are smuggling drugs across the border.

Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch wrote in a social media post on X that the people transferred were “high impact criminals” that “represented a real threat to the country’s security.”

Garia said under an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. He said the 37 individuals were taken to multiple cities, including Washington, Houston, New York,, San Antonio and San Diego, aboard 7 aircraft.

It is the third time in the past year that Mexico has sent detained cartel members to the U.S.

Harfuch said that the government has sent 92 people in total.

Last August, Mexico sent 26 high-ranking cartel figures to the U.S., including Abigael González Valencia, a leader of “Los Cuinis,” a group closely aligned with notorious cartel Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG. Another defendant, Roberto Salazar, was wanted in connection to the 2008 killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.