Mexico has begun the process of extraditing dozens of high-level cartel leaders and members to the U.S., including Rafael Caro Quintero, a former leader of the Guadalajara cartel involved in the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.

The founders of Los Zetas, Miguel and Omar Morales, also known as Z-40 and Z-42, will be extradited to the U.S. as well.

The extraditions were done at the request of the U.S. government as President Donald Trump’s tariff deadline looms. One of the president’s demands is for Mexico to crack down on dangerous cartels and fentanyl production and distribution.

Cartels sell rainbow fentanyl pills, the DEA says. (Drug Enforcement Administration)

In January, a nonprofit group representing the Camarena family urged the Trump administration to renew longstanding U.S. requests for Mexico to extradite Caro Quintero, the AP learned after obtaining a copy of the letter from a person familiar with the family’s outreach.

“His return to the U.S. would give the family much-needed closure and serve the best interests of justice,” the letter said.

Since taking office, Trump has threatened to impose trade tariffs on Mexico, and several Mexican cartels have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations. 

The U.S. had sought the extradition of Caro Quintero shortly after his arrest in 2022. But the request remained stuck at Mexico’s foreign ministry for unknown reasons as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, curtailed Mexican cooperation with the DEA to protest undercover U.S. law enforcement operations in Mexico targeting senior political and military officials.

The removal of the Treviño Morales brothers also marks the end of a long process that began after the capture in 2013 of Miguel Treviño Morales and his brother, Omar, in 2015. The process went on for so many years that Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero described the lags as “truly shameful.”

The Treviño Morales family, accused by American authorities of running the violent  Northeast Cartel from prison, have charges pending in the U.S. for alleged participation in a criminal organization, drug trafficking, gun offenses and money laundering.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.