CHICAGO (WLS) — The number of high-profile cartel targets sent to the United States from Mexico this year is unprecedented, according to a former federal prosecutor.

Aimed at crippling cartel influence in both countries, the extradition process usually takes years.

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First held behind high concrete walls, barred and barricaded, with heavily armed guards, video shows 26 of the most wanted suspected members of criminal organizations, most of them Mexican drug cartels, being shuffled onto a waiting plane to take them over the border to the United States.

“International narcotics work, it is very typical that you’ll charge people with the expectation that you’ll never actually be able to see that person have their day in court… but this is again, an unusual situation,” former federal prosecutor Chris Hotaling told the ABC7 I-Team.

In a video produced by the Mexican government, the show of force can be seen. High-profile prisoners boarded flights bound for San Diego, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and New York on what is known as “Con Air.”

Hotaling says an extradition of this many wanted suspected cartel members by the Mexican government to the U.S. is unprecedented.

“Prior to this year, I can’t remember, to be perfectly honest, the last time that there was a bulk number of wanted individuals that the Mexican government agreed to extradite,” Hotaling said.

U.S. authorities say 25 of this latest group face possible life in prison after the Justice Department agreed to take the death penalty off the table to facilitate the extradition.

This is the second major transfer of suspected cartel criminals in just a few months, a process Hotaling says historically would take years, but now says “is moving much, much quicker, and again, bringing some very, very high value targets, you know, both in this wave and then the previous wave.”

Included in the latest transfer is Jose Antonio Vivanco Hernandez, a man charged in Illinois’ Northern District in Chicago, with conspiracy to traffic and intent to distribute cocaine in the city, Arlington Heights, Morris and Plainfield.

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“These penalties can go up to life. There are mandatory minimums of at least 10 years,” Hotaling said.

With many Mexican cartels now designated by the U.S. as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Hotaling says the message is clear, “The U.S. government and this Department of Justice is going to be coming for you, and coming for you hard.”

Hotaling says even though these dozens of high profile targets are now in U.S. custody, it still may be a week or two until they arrive in the cities in which they are charged.