Mexico has sent 29 drug cartel figures, including a most wanted drug lord, to the US as the Trump administration cranks up the pressure on the crime groups.

The early days of the new US president’s second term were marked by him triggering trade wars with his nearest allies, where he threatened to hike tariffs with Mexico, and Canada, insisting the country crack down on drug cartels, immigration and the production of fentanyl.

With the imposition of the 25% tariffs just days away, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the FBI’s “10 most wanted fugitives”, was one of the individuals handed over in the unprecedented show of cooperation.

It comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

Those sent to the US on Thursday were rounded up from prisons across Mexico and flown to eight US cities, according to the Mexican government.

Prosecutors from both countries said the prisoners sent to the US faced charges including drug trafficking and homicide.

“We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honour of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers – and in some cases, given their lives – to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels,” US attorney general Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

‘Cartel kingpin’

Quintero was convicted of the torture and murder of US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena in 1985.

The murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations.

Quintero was described by the US attorney general as “a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico”.

After decades in jail, and atop the FBI’s most wanted list, he walked free in 2013 when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for killing Mr Camarena.

Quintero, the former leader of the Guadalajara cartel, returned to drug trafficking and triggered bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico state of Sonora until he was arrested a second time in 2022.

The US sought his extradition shortly after, but the request remained stuck at Mexico’s foreign ministry for reasons unknown.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador severely curtailed Mexican cooperation with the DEA to protest undercover US operations in Mexico targeting senior political and military officials.

‘The Lord of The Skies’

Also sent to the US were cartel leaders, security chiefs from both factions of the Sinaloa cartel, cartel finance operatives and a man wanted in connection with the killing of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy in 2022.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, a once leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “The Lord of The Skies”, who died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997, was among those turned over to the US.

As were two leaders of the now defunct Los Zetas cartel, brothers Miguel and Omar Trevino Morales, who were known as Z-40 and Z-42.

The brothers have been accused of running the successor Northeast Cartel from prison.

Trump-Mexico relations

The removal of the cartel figures coincided with a visit to Washington by Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente and other top officials, who met with their US counterparts.

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Mr Trump has made clear his desire to crack down on drug cartels and has pressured Mexico to work with him.

The acting head of the DEA, Derek Maltz, was said to have provided the White House with a list of nearly 30 targets in Mexico wanted in the US on criminal charges and Quintero was top of the list.

It was also said that Ms Sheinbaum’s government, in a rush to seek favour with the Trump administration, bypassed the usual formalities of the countries’ shared extradition treaty in this incident.

This means it could potentially allow US prosecutors to try Quintero for Mr Camarena’s murder – something not contemplated in the existing extradition request to face separate drug trafficking charges in a Brooklyn federal court.

Hollywood legend Gene Hackman and his wife have been found dead, with authorities saying the couple had seemingly been deceased for some time when their bodies were discovered.

Hackman, 95, and his 63-year-old wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their New Mexico home on Wednesday, it was announced on Thursday. One of their pet dogs also died.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said deputies found the bodies while carrying out a welfare check on Wednesday at around 1.45pm local time.

The actor’s body was discovered in a mudroom while Arakawa was found in a bathroom next to a heater, detectives from the sheriff’s office wrote in a search warrant.

There were scattered pills and an open prescription bottle on a countertop near the 63-year-old.

There was no indication they had been shot and they had no other wounds, Ms Avila said. The warrant added the door to the property was found ajar and there were no signs of forced entry.

A German Shepherd was found dead in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, police added. Two healthy dogs were on the property.

The police have since said the deaths of Hackman and his wife are “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation”.

Preliminary findings from a medical investigation have found the couple suffered “no external trauma”.

Official results of post-mortem examinations and toxicology reports are pending and the manner and cause of death have not yet been determined, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The actor’s daughter had earlier suggested they may have been killed by carbon monoxide – but the cause of death remains unclear. Speaking to TMZ, Elizabeth Jean Hackman said the family was not sure but thought the couple may have died from toxic fumes.

The local utility company tested gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were found and did not find any sign of problems, the warrant said.

In a statement issued to Sky News, the sheriff’s office said: “We do not believe foul play was a factor in their deaths, however exact cause of death has not been determined at this time.”

Hackman’s daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie, and granddaughter, Annie, said: “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa.

“We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss,” they added in a statement.

Hackman won an Oscar for a leading role in The French Connection, a 1971 action movie by William Friedkin, and another for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western, Unforgiven.

He was also known for playing Lex Luthor in the Superman films of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Roles in the Francis Ford Coppola mystery thriller The Conversation and in the historical drama Mississippi Burning, where he starred as an FBI agent alongside Willem Dafoe, helped cement his career as one of Hollywood’s greats.

Long career

The former US Marine appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage, during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.

He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde.

He is also remembered for playing Captain Frank Ramsey alongside Denzel Washington in the 1995 thriller Crimson Tide.

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In the early 2000s, he starred as an eccentric patriarch in The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson.

Hackman’s final film appearance was in 2004’s Welcome To Mooseport, after which he retired from acting and began co-writing adventure novels with friend and underwater archaeologist Daniel Lenihan.

“It’s very relaxing for me,” Hackman told Empire Magazine in 2020. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.”

‘He could play anyone’

Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he had known while presenting him with the Cecil B DeMille Award in 2003.

Arakawa was a classical pianist. The couple married in 1991 and lived outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hackman had three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.

Star Trek star George Takei said: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen,” in a tribute on X.

“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it.

“He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was,” Takei wrote on X.

“He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”

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Irish comedian Dara O Briain called Hackman “the finest screen actor ever”.

“Not a single duff performance, in a long, long career,” he wrote in a post on X.

Hackman was versatile on screen, working with a face that he described to the New York Times in 1989 as that of “your everyday mine worker.”

StudioCanal, the UK arm of the leading European film studio, called Hackman’s death “a colossal loss for cinema” in a tribute posted on X.

Donald Trump’s threats of additional trade tariffs against China, on top of the 10% hike imposed earlier this month, have contributed to a widespread stock market sell-off.

Sentiment was already sour on the tariff front, given the spectre of 25% import duties being slapped on the EU, before the US president confirmed his intention to target Canada, Mexico and China next week.

Mr Trump said his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods – delayed by a month – would take effect on Tuesday 4 March as planned, alongside an extra 10% duty on Chinese imports.

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Beijing’s reaction was to threaten further retaliation, building on the market fears that the Trump administration was risking a deepening global trade war.

Asia felt the most pain in equities after a 1.6% decline was registered on the broad S&P 500.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell more than 3%, while Japan’s Nikkei slumped to a five-month low as demand soared for the safe haven yen.

In Europe, the DAX in Germany and French CAC were on course to build on declines seen on Thursday, with the manufacturing-heavy DAX losing just shy of 1% at the open.

The UK may have been spared Trump tariff threats – and even promised renewed trade talks during PM Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting at the White House on Thursday – but the FTSE 100 was still feeling some pain.

A decline of 0.4% was registered in early trading.

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The main fear among investors is damage to the global economy from a widening and protracted trade fight as Mr Trump battles to secure American jobs through the imposition of tariffs.

But one consequence of higher import costs due to the duties is the fact they risk stoking US inflation, as costs are passed on.

Brent crude oil was down by almost 1% to trade at $73 a barrel.

Cryptocurrencies took the largest hammering.

Bitcoin was 27% below its record high set in January at $79,740 and down by 6% on the day.

Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he decided to add the extra tariffs on China and stick to the Tuesday deadline for Canada and Mexico given what his administration sees as insufficient progress on curbing fentanyl flows into the country.

“There are ongoing discussions with the Chinese, Mexico and Canada,” a White House official told the Reuters news agency.

“We’ve gotten a good handle on the migration issue, but there are still concerns on the other issue of fentanyl deaths.”

It was a narrative that was firmly rejected by China’s foreign ministry.

A spokesperson said China would take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate interest.

“The US is once again using the fentanyl issue as a pretext to threaten China”, Lin Jian told a regular news conference.

Commenting on the downbeat market mood Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said:
“The only certainty in this saga is uncertainty, so keep a close eye on developments between now and 4 March.

“Next on the agenda is reciprocal tariffs pencilled in for 2 April with other major US trading partners. The EU, in particular, will be in focus.

“An amicable start to talks with UK premier Keir Starmer looks to have set the tone for a potential trade deal with the UK but with no details outlined it has not been enough to boost enthusiasm for London listed shares.”