Mexico Hands Over Cartel Big Shots to US, Including Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero

Mexico has started extraditing a bunch of high-profile cartel leaders and members to the U.S., including Rafael Caro Quintero, who used to run the Guadalajara cartel. This guy was involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena back in '85. Talk about a throwback case! Also heading north are Miguel and Omar Morales, founders of Los Zetas, known as Z-40 and Z-42. These extraditions happened because the U.S. government asked for it, with President Trump pushing Mexico to get tough on cartels and fentanyl. "The FBI and our partners will scour the ends of the earth to bring terrorists and cartel members to justice," said FBI Director Kash Patel. "The era of harming Americans and walking free is over." Mexico’s Attorney General's Office and Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection stated that 29 people were transferred to the United States of America, which were required due to their links with criminal organizations for drug trafficking, among other crimes. The removal of these guys happened while Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and other officials were in D.C., meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to talk trade and security. Things have been different since Trump got back in office on Jan. 20. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "The group of cartel members, who will soon arrive on American soil, includes one of the most evil cartel bosses in the world, Rafael Caro Quintero, who tortured and murdered DEA Agent Kiki Camerena in 1985. The previous Administration allowed these criminals to run free and commit crimes all over the world. The Trump Administration is declaring these thugs as terrorists, because that is what they are, and demanding justice for the American people." Caro Quintero, one of the FBI’s ten most wanted, was arrested again in Mexico in July 2022 after getting back into drug trafficking, according to the DEA. Apparently, he blamed Camarena for a raid on a marijuana plantation in 1984 and allegedly ordered his kidnapping the next year. Camarena’s body was found a month later, showing signs of torture. The FBI put Caro Quintero on the Top 10 Most Wanted list in 2018, offering up to $20 million for info leading to his arrest. In January, a nonprofit group representing the Camarena family urged the Trump administration to renew longstanding U.S. requests for Mexico to extradite Caro Quintero. Caro-Quintero landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York, on Thursday night, and the next day, he appeared in a New York courtroom packed with over 100 DEA agents. He was then led toward a defense table by U.S. marshals, with his wrists shackled using the same handcuffs Camarena once carried. Since taking office, Trump has threatened to impose trade tariffs on Mexico, and several Mexican cartels have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. had sought the extradition of Caro Quintero shortly after his arrest in 2022. But the request remained stuck at Mexico’s foreign ministry for unknown reasons as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, curtailed Mexican cooperation with the DEA to protest undercover U.S. law enforcement operations in Mexico targeting senior political and military officials. The removal of the Treviño Morales brothers also marks the end of a long process that began after the capture in 2013 of Miguel Treviño Morales and his brother, Omar, in 2015. The process went on for so many years that Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero described the lags as "truly shameful." The Treviño Morales family, accused by American authorities of running the violent  Northeast Cartel from prison, have charges pending in the U.S. for alleged participation in a criminal organization, drug trafficking, gun offenses and money laundering. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.