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.
Image: The FBI wanted poster for Rafael Caro Quintero. Pic: AP/FBI
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.
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‘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.
Image: Rafael Caro Quintero. Pic: Reuters/FBI
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.
Image: Soldiers escort a man who authorities identified as Omar Trevino Morales, also known as Z-42. Pic: AP/Eduardo Verdugo
Image: Miguel Angel Trevino Morales after his arrest. Pic: AP/Mexico’s Interior Ministry
Image: Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the purported leader of the Juarez cartel, pictured after his arrest in 2014. Pic: AP
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.
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.
Countries attending COP30, the biggest climate meeting of the year, have agreed steps to help speed up climate action, according to a draft deal.
The meeting of leaders in the Brazilian city of Belem also saw them agree to reviewing related trade barriers and triple the money given to developing countries to help them withstand extreme weather events, according to the draft.
However, the summit’s president Correa do Lago said “roadmaps” on fossil fuels and forests would be published as there was no consensus on these issues.
The annual United Nations conference brings together world leaders, scientists, campaigners, and negotiators from across the globe, who agree on collective next steps for tackling climate change.
The two-week conference in the Amazon city of Belem was due to end at 6pm local time (9pm UK time) on Friday, but it dragged into overtime.
The standoff was between the EU, which pressed for language on transitioning away from fossil fuels, and the Arab Group of nations, including major oil exporter Saudi Arabia, which opposed it.
The impasse was resolved following all-night negotiations led by Brazil, negotiators said.
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The European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, said on Saturday that the proposed accord was acceptable, even though the bloc would have liked more.
“We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” he said.
The Brazilian presidency scheduled a closing plenary session.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and about 80 countries, including the UK and coal-rich Colombia, had been pushing for a plan on how to “transition away from fossil fuels”.
This is a pledge all countries agreed to two years ago at COP28 – then did very little about since.
But scores of countries – including major oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia – see this push as too prescriptive or a threat to their economies.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Israel says it has begun striking Hamas targets in Gaza, reportedly killing at least nine people, after what it called a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
Local health authorities in Gaza said there had been three separate airstrikes, one hit a car in the densely populated Rimal neighbourhood, killing five people and wounding several others.
Shortly after the attack on the car, the Israeli air force hit two more targets in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
They said at least four people died when two houses were struck in Deir Al-Balah city and Nuseirat camp.
The Israeli military said there had been a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
It claimed a gunman had crossed into Israeli-held territory after exploiting “the humanitarian road in the area through which humanitarian aid enters southern Gaza”.
A Hamas official rejected the Israeli military’s allegations as baseless, calling them an “excuse to kill”, adding the Palestinian group was committed to the ceasefire agreement.
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The Israeli airstrikes are a further test of a fragile ceasefire with Hamas, which has held since 10 October following the two-year Gaza war.
Israel pulled back its troops, and the flow of aid into the territory has increased. But violence has not completely halted.
Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 316 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce.
Meanwhile, Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began and it has attacked scores of militants.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
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Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
Image: Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Image: Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposalon the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Image: Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.