The Legal Loophole that Saw 29 Drug Kingpins Expelled to the US

Last week saw an unprecedented number of Mexican drug cartel kingpins and traffickers transferred from Mexico to US custody. A total of 29 in one day occurred with half a dozen extraditions occuring in the prior weeks.

On average for the last several years, Mexico has extradited around 60 cartel figures each year. So far, over half of that amount has been sent to the US so far this year. Most of the 29 had been captured in recent years during the AMLO administration with several stretching back to over a decade in Mexican custody. 

Many had fought their extradition with numerous legal tactics and Amparos seeing to halt the legal process needed for extradition to the US. “Z-40,” the CDN/Los Zetas leader even filed paperwork denying that he is the person listed in the indictments. One, “El Guerito” a Los Chapitos lieutenant had only been arrested days earlier in February. 

So how did over a decade of legal proceedings for extraditing cartel members fall by the wayside after trade negotiations and the designation of cartel groups and FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations)? What provision is Mexico using to justify bypassing the legal extradition process in Mexico?

Our answer was confirmed during the first hearing of longtime DEA target Rafael Caro-Quintero in New York Federal Court. Judge Robert M. Levy clarified in court Caro Quintero was expelled from Mexico under a provision within the national security law, which permits the Mexican government to remove an individual without undergoing the formal extradition process.

US authorities employed different terms, “transfer,” said the Attorney General’s Office, “extradition,” said the White House, “expulsion,” said the State Department.

Mexican Prosecutor General Alejandro Gertz clarified in a press conference that it was not an extradition, in accordance with the bilateral treaty on the matter between the two countries, but a “sending.” Security Secratery Omar García Harfuch spoke of a “transfer.” Gertz explained that the operation was carried out at the express request of the United States and that Mexico responded based on the National Security Law and the constitutional article that empowers the head of the government, President Claudia Sheinbaum, to preserve it.

Gertz has pointed out that Washington presented Mexico with a “formal,” “written,” and “concrete” request to carry out the operation specifically against the 29 drug lords within the framework of the Palermo Convention, the UN agreement to combat transnational organized crime that establishes guidelines on extradition (a recourse that, the official insisted, was not used).

“There was a well-founded request from the United States government, that was the reason why the whole procedure was triggered,” he said. Gertz added that the institutional mobilization was immediate. “Within hours [of receiving the request], the National Security Council was convened, the analysis was made at that meeting, the legal bases were established, to ensure they were fulfilled, and the procedure was carried out. It was a timely matter,” he indicated.