Mexico sent 37 people accused of being criminal operatives to the United States on Tuesday, the latest apparent bid to alleviate pressure from President Trump to do more to combat the powerful groups smuggling drugs across the border.
It was the first such transfer this year, when Mr. Trump’s threats of military action against Mexico have grown more direct, but the third since he took office.
Mexican authorities have now sent nearly 100 people accused of being key criminals to the United States.
The transfers are part of a larger effort by Mexican authorities to appease Mr. Trump as he threatens unilateral strikes inside Mexican territory — an act that President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has said would be a violation of her nation’s sovereignty.
Amid those threats, Ms. Sheinbaum has launched an aggressive campaign against cartels, strengthened policing at the border, bent to Mr. Trump’s economic demands and sent dozens of accused criminals north.
Many experts in Mexico have raised questions about the legal grounds and political gambit of the transfers, as they have been completed outside the normal extradition process. Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s security chief, said Tuesday that the transfers were legal and that, in agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, the death penalty would not be pursued. (Capital punishment is prohibited in Mexico.)
“These individuals posed a real threat to the country’s security,” he posted online.
Mr. Harfuch added that the detainees were sent to various U.S. cities on Mexican military planes.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For a year, Mr. Trump has threatened military measures and tariffs to try to force Mexican officials to take more action against cartels and illegal immigration. In the aftermath of the U.S. strike in Venezuela, Mr. Trump’s threats have grown sterner. He said in a Fox News interview on Jan. 8 that the United States would “start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels” in Mexico.
Those comments greatly concerned Mexicans officials, who had believed that the two countries’ deep economic ties and improved security cooperation would shield Mexico from unilateral action.
Last week, The New York Times reported that the United States was intensifying pressure on Mexico to allow U.S. military forces to conduct joint operations to dismantle fentanyl labs inside the country.
Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Trump spoke briefly on Jan. 12. Even though she said that she again rejected Mr. Trump’s offer of U.S. troops in Mexico, she said they agreed to talk more.
But late last week, despite a phone call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Mexican counterpart and a joint statement about upcoming security meetings, the State Department said in a social media post that “the United States made clear that incremental progress in facing border security challenges is unacceptable.”
In response, Ms. Sheinbaum defended her country’s efforts, sharing data that she said underscored her administration’s progress in fighting drug trafficking.
She added that the United States needed to better tackle the drug trade within its own borders, as well as the flow of guns into Mexico.
Since Mr. Trump’s comments about land strikes in Mexico, Mexican officials have wanted to show results.
They announced arrests of people they accused of being part of criminal groups that the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. They touted raids of drug labs and drug seizures, including what they said was $20 million worth of fentanyl smuggled into Mexico City’s airport as cosmetics from Asia.
On Saturday, Mexican officials said they arrested, with help from the F.B.I., a fugitive named Alejandro Rosales Castillo, who had been on the U.S. agency’s Top Ten Most Wanted list since 2017 for murder.
In all, Mexican authorities have handed over 92 “high-impact criminals,” in Mr. Harfuch’s words, since Mr. Trump took office.
It was unclear whether the accused criminals had been convicted of offenses in Mexico or were being held awaiting trial. Mexican officials linked many to cartels, saying they had trafficked drugs and laundered money.
Among the detainees transferred to the United States, according to the Mexican government: Daniel Alfredo Blanco Joo, accused by Mexican authorities of being a logistics operator linked to the Sinaloa Cartel who helped smuggle drugs into the United States; José Luis Sánchez Valencia, who Mexican officials said was part of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel and related to its leader; and Ricardo González Sauceda, who is accused of being a regional leader of the Cártel del Noreste and was sanctioned by the U.S. in May.
“It’s an offering,” said Carlos Pérez Ricart, an expert on organized crime and professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City.
The latest handover, he said, is “far from a magic solution” to stave off Mr. Trump’s pressure. “But at least the Mexican government is buying itself some time.”
Mr. Pérez Ricart said that the legal and political debate surrounding the transfers have subsided since the first one last year, in part, because Mr. Trump’s military action in Venezuela has made his threats more real.
Jack Nicas contributed reporting.
James Wagner covers news and culture in Latin America for The Times. He is based in Mexico City.
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