Exclusive: Mexico Looks At New "Mega Expulsion," Of 40 Narcos
Potential targets include "El Cuini," financial brain of the Jalisco Cartel
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The Mexican federal government is looking at carrying out another mass “expulsion” of senior cartel figures from Mexican prisons to U.S. custody, with a list of 40 potential targets including the Jalisco Cartel’s “El Cuini,” or Abigael González Valencia, according to a Mexican source familiar with the planning. Mexican prosecutors are also considering filing Mexican terrorism charges against cartel operatives, which could strengthen the controversial argument for expulsions, the source said. The tactics are part of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s strategy of cracking down hard on cartels to placate the Trump administration and avoid excessive tariffs or unilateral U.S. military strikes into Mexico.
The Mexican government pulled off the first “mega expulsion” on Feb. 27, flying 29 alleged cartel bosses on military planes to a spattering of U.S. cities where they were welcomed by U.S. agents. The “expelled” included former heads of the Zetas mob and Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for four decades for the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. (Caro Quintero then faced a judge in New York, wearing Camarena’s own handcuffs). The expulsion trampled on formal extradition processes but Mexico’s attorney general Alejandro Gertz Manero justified it by citing a National Security Law.
U.S. officials have been instructed to refer to the expulsions as “an extraordinary transfer process,” a U.S. government official said. They leave the alleged cartel bosses open to the death penalty, which is normally waived during formal extradition processes with Mexico.
The United States has a list of about 100 targets in Mexico it would like to transfer to U.S. prisons, according to the U.S. official. El Cuini is accused of being the financial brain behind the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and is the brother in law of its supreme boss El Mencho. Cuini was arrested in a Sonora Grill Prime restaurant in Puerto Vallarata in 2015 and is in Mexico’s (supposedly) top security prison opposing extradition. Another mobster fighting to stay in Mexico is “La Tuta,” or Servando Gómez, a rural school teacher who became the public face of the surreally-named Knights Templar cartel in Michoacán.
Cartel bosses have been able to delay extraditions for years, using injunctions and other legal challenges, and some continue to operate from behind bars. The idea of invoking a national security law to justify extraordinary expulsions was first discussed between Mexico and the United States last year, the U.S. official said.
“It was collaborative. For months, we had been trying to figure out how to do this,” the U.S. official said. “We looked at how can we find a way under Mexico’s laws that will work to get these people.”
Mexican senior security officials were also keen to remove the cartel bosses, who are a direct threat to them, the U.S. official said.. “They are killing prison guards. They are threatening prison guards. They are still running things from prison,” the official said. “What judge is ever going to sign that extradition order. You can’t just say it’s because they are corrupt. It’s because they don’t want their grandkids…”
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