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By The Associated Press
Published: Jan. 20, 2026
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 Garca 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. Garca 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 Beltrn-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.
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 Nicols Maduro earlier this month.
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