MEXICO CITY – On Tuesday, a group of attorneys and relatives of prominent cartel leaders accused the Mexican government of unlawfully transferring nearly 100 Mexican nationals to the United States without following proper extradition procedures.

This accusation follows closely on the heels of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration sending 37 detained cartel figures to the U.S. last week. Analysts view these actions as an attempt by Mexican authorities to appease U.S. President Donald Trump, who has warned of possible military intervention against cartels.

Since February, the Mexican government has extradited a total of 92 cartel members to the United States, spread across three separate transfers. These actions align with Sheinbaum’s broader strategy to combat cartel operations and maintain favorable diplomatic relations with the Trump administration.

The legality of these transfers has sparked considerable debate, particularly after the most recent extraditions. While the Mexican government insists that the transfers were conducted legally under the guise of national security, the Trump administration has clarified that these individuals were wanted for various crimes in the U.S., with many having pending extradition requests.

During a press conference on Tuesday, the cartel members’ legal representatives argued that their clients’ rights were violated. They claimed that the extraditions bypassed the required judicial processes in Mexico, highlighting the absence of formal extradition orders.

“Mexico is currently under intense pressure from the United States,” said Yarey Sánchez Lagunas, the lawyer of two people transferred to the U.S. in the last year. “This forces us to seriously question if these decisions are being used to show political results, even if it comes at the expense of due process or the rule of law.”

The arguments echo those made by the lawyers of infamous capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, now serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Sánchez Lagunas is the defense lawyer of Itiel Palacios García, a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel sent to the U.S. last February, and Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, a leader of the Arellano Félix Cartel in northern Mexico sent in August.

One partner of a regional leader of the Zetas cartel, Vanesa Guzmán, went as far to file a criminal complaint against high-ranking members of Mexico’s government, namely Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, who has spearheaded much of the government’s cartel crackdown. Her partner, Juan Pedro Saldívar Farías, was sent to the U.S. last week in the latest set of transfers and is accused of arms and drug trafficking.

Guzmán accused Harfuch and other security officials of “treason” in her complaint filed to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday, though lawyers of the transferred cartel members said they had no legal recourse within Mexico to challenge the transfers now that their clients are outside the country.

“The transfer of my partner is nothing less than exile,” she said. “As of today, we haven’t heard anything from him. He hasn’t even made his legally permitted call.”

Some, like Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA, brushed off the complaints on Tuesday, and commended the U.S. authorities for “fast-tracking” a legal process that is often stalled for years by lawyers filing rounds of injunctions in an effort to slow down law enforcement.

Vigil noted that Mexico’s constitution allows the country’s president to make major moves like the one seen last week to protect national security. While Guzmán and lawyers said detainees were no threat because they were already carrying out sentences in Mexico, Vigil was quick to point out that capos often use Mexican prisons as centers for their criminal operations.

“Sheinbaum did it to enhance cooperation with the U.S. government, but at the same time she understands that these individuals, if they remain in prisons there … they usually have access to their criminal organizations, have access through phones,” Vigil said. “These fast tracks are extremely valuable in terms of making sure they face justice.”