Regional Power Transfers 37 Suspected Criminals to Northern Neighbor

Mexico reportedly transferred 37 alleged cartel members to the nation’s northern neighbor on Tuesday, as observers note mounting pressure from the current administration to dismantle drug trafficking networks across the region.

According to Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, the detainees were described as “high-impact criminals” who allegedly posed “a real threat to the country’s security.” With this latest transfer, Mexico has now reportedly sent 92 such figures northward, he said.

Video footage released by Mexican authorities showed handcuffed prisoners surrounded by heavily armed, masked officers as they were loaded onto a military aircraft near the capital.

The group reportedly includes members of several major criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel, Jalisco New Generation cartel, Beltrán-Leyva cartel, the Northeast cartel and remnants of the Zetas based in Tamaulipas along the northern border region. Mexican officials said all had pending cases in courts across the border.

Among those transferred was María del Rosario Navarro Sánchez, reportedly the first Mexican national charged in the neighboring country with providing material support to a terrorist organization after allegedly conspiring with a cartel.

“This is Mexico resorting to extraordinary measures as pressure from the executive residence increases,” David Mora, a Mexico analyst with the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press.

The move comes as the current head of state has reportedly sharpened rhetoric against drug cartels, even floating the possibility of military action, following a recent operation in Venezuela that removed former President Nicolás Maduro.

“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,” the leader told a media outlet this month. “The cartels are running Mexico—it’s very, very sad to watch, and see what’s happened to that country.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke with her northern counterpart last week, saying intervention was “not necessary,” while emphasizing continued cooperation between the two countries.

Mexico first sent 29 cartel figures northward last February, including notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for the 1985 killing of a law enforcement agent. A second transfer in August included 26 cartel members from multiple organizations.

García Harfuch said the transfers were reportedly driven by public safety concerns, arguing that cartel leaders were continuing to run criminal operations from inside the nation’s prisons, as is common in countries struggling with organized crime infiltration of correctional systems.