Mexico sends 37 cartel members to US in latest offer to Trump
administration
[January 21, 2026]
By MEGAN JANETSKY
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 García 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. García 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 Beltrán-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 María Del Rosario Navarro Sánchez, 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 Nicolás Maduro
earlier this month.
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Mexican Security and Citizen Protection Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch
attend a news conference in Mexico City, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP
Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
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, García 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.
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Associated Press reporter Fabiola Sanchéz contributed to this report
from Mexico City.
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