Trump Admin Reportedly Pressuring Mexico To Prosecute And Extradite Politicians Suspected Of Cartel Ties

The Trump administration is reportedly pressuring Mexico to ramp up the prosecution and extradition of local politicians suspected of having ties with cartels if they have to answer to criminal charges there.

Concretely, Reuters detailed that the State Department brought up the issue at least three times in bilateral meetings. Officials called for action against politicians from the party led by President Claudia Sheinbaum, Morena, and threatened with imposing additional tariffs should their demands not be met.

The outlet quoted sources saying that five Morena officials and a former senator were mentioned, including Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Avila.

Avila and her husband, a former congressman, recently had their U.S. visas revoked. Ávila, a member of Morena, did not indicate a specific reason for the U.S. decision but characterized the situation as part of a "complex binational context" requiring "composure and prudence." She

Mexico's Foreign Ministry rejected the report in a social media post, claiming that it is "absolutely false that in the meetings with Secretary Rubio or his team at the State Department, that requests have been made to investigate, prosecute or extradite any Mexican official."

However, recent reports noted ties between certain Mexican politicians and cartels. One of them is José Ascensión Murguía Santiago, former mayor of Teuchitlán, Jalisco, who was arrested following an investigation that uncovered an alleged network of criminal ties between officials of the rural Jalisco community and the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

Murguía is now being accused of working directly with cartel leaders in operations involving kidnappings and the disposal of human remains at the Izaguirre Ranch — an infamous property allegedly used by the CJNG as a training camp, detention center and execution site.

The country's most emblematic case is that of former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, who was sentenced to pay over $2.4 billion in damages for their involvement in a vast corruption and money laundering scheme that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from the Mexican government.

In a related criminal case, García Luna was convicted in February 2023 by a U.S. federal jury in Brooklyn on charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution conspiracy, and making false statements. He was sentenced in October 2024 to 38 years in federal prison and fined $2 million for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, facilitating the transportation of over a million kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

García Luna remains the highest-ranking Mexican official to ever be convicted in the United States. Judge Brian M. Cogan, who presided over the trial, told García Luna that "Aside from your pleasant demeanor and your articulateness, you have the same thuggishness as El Chapo."