Mexico’s top security officials revealed that they had information that some of the 28 top cartel drug lords extradited to U.S. authorities last week could have been released by corrupt judges. The historic move occurred on the same day that Mexico’s security cabinet traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with some U.S. cabinet, military, and law enforcement officials.
“The Security Cabinet has information that there was a risk that some of these targets requested by the United States government would be released or their extradition processes would continue to be delayed,” Harfuch said, “due to agreements with some judges who sought to favor them, as had already been done on other occasions and for many years.”
The prisoner transfer was seen as a way to appease the Trump administrationn, which has publicly called Mexico a Narco-State and threatened it with tariffs, sanctions, and other punitive measures.
As Breitbart Texas reported on February 27, Mexican authorities quietly moved 29 prisoners listed by the U.S. Department of Justice as fugitives, placed them on airplanes, and flew them to various cities north of the border into the waiting hands of federal agents. The prisoners included 28 wanted drug lords and one murder suspect, who are described as some of the most famous and violent criminals in recent Mexican history. The prisoners included Rafael Caro Quintero, a leader of the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel who is accused of being one of the masterminds behind the 1985 murder of U.S. D.E.A. Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
After returning from the meeting with U.S. officials, Mexico’s Public Security Secretary, Omar Garcia Harfuch, revealed that the prisoner transfer was due to avoid those crime bosses being freed and escaping justice due to widespread corruption within the justice system.
Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero claimed that the prisoners were not extradited in the traditional and legal sense but were transferred to U.S. authorities based on Mexico’s National Security laws.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at
