Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and Security Ministry said the handovers were carried out after the US Justice Department pledged not to seek the death penalty.
Twenty-six alleged leaders and operatives from some of Mexico’s most violent criminal organizations are being handed over to US custody following a coordinated transfer between the two countries, officials confirmed Tuesday.
The move includes Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, described by American authorities as a top figure in “Los Cuinis,” a cartel faction tied to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), per the Associated Press. Another man, Roberto Salazar, is accused in the 2008 killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and Security Ministry said the handovers were carried out after the US Justice Department pledged not to seek the death penalty. The operation took place on Tuesday, with the suspects flown from Mexico to the United States.
This marks the second large-scale expulsion of cartel suspects to the U.S. in recent months. In February, Mexican authorities turned over 29 alleged traffickers, among them Rafael Caro Quintero, convicted in connection to the 1985 killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
The latest transfers come as Washington increases pressure on Mexico to take stronger action against drug trafficking groups responsible for moving fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine across the border. The Trump administration has named CJNG and several other Latin American criminal organizations as foreign terrorist groups.
Gonzalez Valencia, arrested in 2015 in Puerto Vallarta, had been fighting extradition for nearly a decade. He is the brother-in-law of CJNG leader Nemesio Ruben “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, considered one of the most wanted cartel leaders by U.S. law enforcement. Along with his brothers, Gonzalez Valencia is accused of financing CJNG’s rapid expansion, helping it become one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, known for extreme violence and large-scale drug shipments.
His brother, Jose Gonzalez Valencia, was arrested in Brazil in 2017 and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced in June to 30 years in federal prison for cocaine trafficking.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has adopted a more aggressive stance toward organized crime than her predecessor, while resisting calls from U.S. officials for direct American military action in Mexico.
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