Twenty-nine cartel members handed over to Trump and dozens of cases in the US justice system: The background to an unprecedented operation

Mexico has accelerated the extradition of dozens of drug lords to avoid the threat of tariffs from the Donald Trump administration. Claudia Sheinbaum’s security cabinet confirmed Thursday the transfer of 29 priority targets for the United States, moments before meeting with senior White House officials amid renewed tariff pressure from Washington. After an unprecedented operation, the list of those capos handed over to the U.S. includes names such as Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985; José Ángel Canobbio Inzunza, alias “El Güero,” identified as one of the main financial operators of Los Chapitos, and the brothers Miguel Ángel and Omar Treviño Morales, alias Z-40 and Z-42, the last leaders of Los Zetas. Drug trafficking, homicide, money laundering, and organized crime are some of the charges that the extradited cartel members face in U.S. courts.

Rafael Caro Quintero: pending accounts

The so-called “Narco of Narcos” has been one of the DEA’s main targets for decades. Aside from a criminal career that stretches back to the 1970s as the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel and a historic leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, the anti-narcotics agency put a target on Caro Quintero’s back by linking him to the torture and brutal murder of undercover agent Camarena. The capo was sentenced in 1985 for the case, but managed to get out of jail due to a procedural error in 2013. He was recaptured in 2022 in the mountains of Sinaloa. The drug trafficker had managed to prevent his extradition with rulings favorable to his case until just a few days ago, dealing multiple setbacks to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). The accused has at least four open cases in the United States: one in Texas, two in California, and another in New York, where he was taken. Washington said he faces a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.

The oldest files come from the Central District of California and date back to 1987. The file related to the Camarena case includes 18 charges, including several for bribery, kidnapping, the murder of a federal agent and first-degree murder. California also accuses him of marijuana and other drug trafficking offenses in another case. In the Eastern District Court of New York, which has handled the cases against Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the drug trafficker has been accused since 2015 of four crimes: one for belonging to a continuing criminal enterprise (organized crime), another for the use of weapons, and two more for conspiracy to traffic marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines. In Texas, Caro Quintero faces three charges: conspiracy to kidnap, illegal transportation of firearms, and their use to commit a crime. The charges were filed in 2020, but stem from a case from the 1980s against Ambrosio Quintero, also known as Margarito Almeida, whom the drug lord blamed for the murder of his father, Emilio Caro.

Controversy over the identity of Z-40 and Z-42

The Treviño Morales brothers have also been in the crosshairs of the United States for decades. Last October, a new case was made public in the District of Columbia against both leaders of Los Zetas and the Cartel del Noreste for belonging to a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to traffic drugs, firearms offenses and money-laundering crimes. The latest battery of charges is added to another one opened in the Southern District of Texas from 2008. Miguel Ángel, Z-40, is accused of almost 50 crimes, while the younger brother, Omar, Z-42, stands accused of three others. After being imprisoned in Nayarit, the brothers will be tried in Washington and face possible life sentences.

Mexican authorities announced the capture of Z-40 in 2013 and Z-42 in 2015, but both detainees have since claimed that they have been mistakenly identified and that the real perpetrators are still at large. Prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero, one of the officials who made the trip to Washington, complained this week that the suspects have taken advantage of this legal strategy. “They have been delaying hearings for eight and 11 years,” he said. Defense attorneys maintain that their clients have been wrongly identified. Ovidio Guzmán, one of El Chapo’s sons, used similar arguments to stop his extradition, but was finally transferred in September 2023. The Cartel del Noreste was designated this month as a terrorist organization in the United States, along with five other cartels.

El Güero and the offensive against Los Chapitos

The United States announced charges against José Ángel Canobbio only last November. Identified as one of the main financial operators and a high-ranking lieutenant in the security structure of Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel commanded by the heirs of El Chapo, “El Güerito” or “El 90,” as he is also known, is accused of the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl and other drugs. If found guilty, he faces life in prison. He was arrested on February 19 in Culiacán, the historical stronghold of the criminal organization, and identified as one of the men closest to Iván Archivaldo Guzmán. The capo was expected to be one of the main cards of the Mexican authorities in their negotiations with Washington.

Canobbio joins the 50 or so capos linked to Los Chapitos who have suffered the same fate since September, when the war for succession in the Sinaloa Cartel broke out, according to a count made by this newspaper based on statements provided by the authorities. The latest to join the list was Kevin Alonso Gil, “El 200,” a key figure among Los Chapitos’ bodyguards, captured a week ago. El Güero will be transferred to Chicago, where two of El Chapo’s sons are already in custody: Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López. While both are facing the U.S. judicial system, their half-brothers, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, are at the forefront of the conflict against La Mayiza, the faction loyal to El Mayo Zambada, which has left more than 800 people dead in a wave of violence in Sinaloa.

Blows to the CJNG, La Familia Michoacana and the Juárez Cartel

Also on the extradition list is Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, “Tony Montana,” brother of Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Arrested in 2022, the capo is identified as the main financial and logistical operator and a powerful figure at the top of the criminal organization. His destination was Washington, where he was accused in 2023 of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and methamphetamines, as well as charges for illegal possession of weapons. Last September, Rubén Oseguera, “El Menchito,” his nephew and alleged successor to El Mencho, was convicted in the same court on similar charges.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, former leader of the Juárez Cartel and brother of Amado Carrillo, “El Señor de los Cielos,” was extradited to New York. The first case against him was filed in Texas in 1997, where he faces 46 charges, including money laundering, witness tampering, and ordering murders. In 2021, he was sentenced in Mexico to 28 years in prison. José Jesús Méndez Vargas, “El Chango,” founder of La Familia Michoacana, will also go to New York State. His arrest was announced by former president Felipe Calderón in 2011, on charges of drug trafficking and extortion, and his extradition had been sought since then. José Alberto García Vilano, alias “La Kena,” the kingpin linked to the Gulf Cartel who was behind the kidnapping of four Americans in Tamaulipas in 2023, will be held in Texas. They were all taken to the United States from Felipe Ángeles International Airport, just outside Mexico City.

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