(13 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexico City – 13 August 2025
++ AUDIO QUALITY FROM SOURCE ++
1. Officials (Left-right) Mexico’s Navy Secretary, Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles; Mexico’s Attorney General, Alejandro Gertz Manero; Mexico’s Security Secretary, Omar García Harfuch; Mexico’s Defense Secretary, Ricardo Trevilla Trejo; and Mexico’s National Guard Commander Hernán Cortés Hernández watching video of operation in which alleged cartel figures were transferred to the U.S.
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Omar García Harfuch, Security Secretary of Mexico:
"These transfers (of alleged cartel figures) are not only a strategic measure to ensure public safety, but also reflect a firm determination to prevent these criminals from continuing to operate from within prisons and to break up their networks of influence."
3. García Harfuch leaving podium; officials standing for official photo
STORYLINE:
Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said Wednesday that the recent transfer of 26 alleged cartel members to the United States was aimed at ensuring they could no longer run their operations from behind bars and dismantling their networks of influence.
"These transfers are not only a strategic measure to ensure public safety, but also reflect a firm determination to prevent these criminals from continuing to operate from within prisons," García Harfuch said in a news conference.
Though the mass transfer came at the request of the U.S., it was not part of wider negotiations as Mexico seeks to avoid higher tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, officials said.
The 26 prisoners handed over to American authorities on Tuesday included figures aligned with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel among others.
They were wanted by American authorities for their roles in drug trafficking and other crimes.
Twenty-nine other cartel leaders were sent to the U.S. in February.
In the exchange, the U.S. Justice Department promised it would not seek the death penalty against any of the 55 people included in the two transfers, which experts say may help avoid any violent outburst by the cartels in response.
Authorities said the operation involved nearly a thousand law enforcement officers, 90 vehicles and a dozen military aircraft.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier Wednesday that the transfers were "sovereign decisions," but the move comes as the Mexican leader faces mounting pressure by the Trump administration to crack down on cartels and fentanyl production.
García Harfuch also confirmed Wednesday that a U.S. government drone — non-military — was flying over central Mexico, but at the request of Mexican authorities as part of an ongoing investigation.
So far, Sheinbaum has tried to show the Trump administration a greater willingness to pursue the cartels than her predecessor — a change that has been acknowledged by U.S. officials — and continued to slow migration to the U.S. border, in an effort to avoid the worst of Trump’s tariff threats.
Two weeks ago, the two leaders spoke and agreed to give their teams another 90 days to negotiate to avoid threatened 30% tariffs on imports from Mexico.
AP Video by Martín Silva Rey
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