Mexico Sends 37 Cartel Members to US   01/21 06:30

   

   MEXICO CITY (AP) -- 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 Garca 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."

   It is the third time in less than one year that Mexico has sent detained 
cartel members to the U.S. as the country attempts to offset mounting threats 
by U.S. President Donald Trump. Garca Harfuch said the government has sent 92 
people in total.

   Video shared by Mexican authorities shows a line of handcuffed prisoners 
surrounded by heavily armed and masked officers being loaded onto a military 
jet at an airport on the outskirts of Mexico City.

   "As the pressure increases, as demands from the White House dial up, 
(Mexico's government) needs to resort to extraordinary measures, such as these 
transfers," said David Mora, a Mexico analyst at the International Crisis Group.

   The U.S. State Department and Justice Department did not immediately respond 
to a request for comment.

   Tuesday's transfer included a handful of important figures from the Sinaloa 
Cartel, the Beltrn-Leyva cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Northeast 
Cartel, a remnant of the infamous Zetas based in the Mexican border state of 
Tamaulipas, across from Texas. Mexican authorities said that all had pending 
U.S. cases.

   Among those transferred was Mara Del Rosario Navarro Snchez, the first 
Mexican citizen to face charges in the U.S. for providing support to a 
terrorist organization, after being accused of conspiring with a cartel.

   Trump has publicly entertained the idea of military action on Mexican 
cartels, language that has only gotten more combative since a U.S. military 
operation in Venezuela deposed former President Nicols Maduro earlier this 
month.

   Turning his attention to Mexico shortly after the Venezuela attack, Trump 
said in an interview with Fox News: "We've knocked out 97% of the drugs coming 
in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the 
cartels."

   Last week, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke with Trump, telling him 
that U.S. intervention in Mexico was "not necessary," but emphasizing that the 
two governments would continue to collaborate.

   Last February, Mexico sent 29 cartel figures to the U.S., including drug 
lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 
1985. In August, a second round saw 26 Mexican cartel figures sent to the U.S. 
None had the profile of Caro Quintero, but spanning multiple cartels, the 
figures could help U.S. prosecutors build cases.

   After the August transfer, Garca Harfuch said it was a public safety 
decision, because Mexico did not want them to continue operating their illicit 
businesses from inside Mexican prisons.

   Another transfer of prisoners to the U.S. had been rumored for weeks. Mexico 
has sought to assure the Trump administration that it continues to be a willing 
partner in combating drug traffickers.

   "For the Trump administration and the Trump base, what is going to matter in 
the end is some wins that Trump can actually bring back and say 'Look this is 
what I'm getting out of Mexico,'" said Mora.