Mexico extradites 29 high-level organized crime operatives as it attempts to postpone Trump's tariff deadline

In a bid to please US President Donald Trump’s administration, Mexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the United States. The initiative was taken as the country faces immense pressure and tariff threats from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling the fentanyl issue that has taken over the border.

Among the prisoners who have been extradited to the US were Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord who was convicted of the murder of an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985. For months, Mexico has been trying to convince the US to postpone the 25 per cent tariffs on all Mexican imports.

Trump has often tried to use the tariff threat to negotiate with Mexico regarding the measures to deal with fentanyl trafficking and migration without setting any specific targets. Some of the other notable names handed over to the US include two former leaders of the notoriously violent Zetas cartel, Omar and Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales.

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They were arrested back in 2013, but the US authorities accused them of continuing to run the Cartel del Noreste, the successor of Las Zetas, from prison. It is pertinent to note that the extraditions came as Mexican delegations visited their counterparts in the United States to further delay Trump’s tariffs deadline, which currently stands at March 4.

Mexico’s long battle

Caro Quintero, the former leader of the now-defunct Guadalajara cartel, spent over 28 years in prison for the torture and murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He was released back in 2013 when the court overturned his sentence. The authorities claimed that he returned to drug trafficking and was eventually put on the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives list until he was rearrested by Mexican security forces in 2022.

Mexico has been working on fulfilling America’s wishes to avert tariffs. Roughly 80 per cent of Mexican exports go to the US, and experts say the tariffs could send the country into recession. Meanwhile, tariffs might impact the US economy and business interests as well due to America’s reliance on Mexican goods.

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Earlier, Mexico won a one-month reprieve from the previous deadline by agreeing to send 10,000 soldiers to the US-Mexico border. However, it was unclear exactly how many extra soldiers would be deployed to reduce the flow of fentanyl from the border region. Since then, the US has designated six Mexican organised crime groups as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs), ratcheting up the diplomatic pressure between the countries.

With inputs from agencies.