One Year Into Trump’s Presidency, Mexico Charts a Coordinated Course

One year after Donald Trump assumed his second administration in the White House, the Mexico-United States relationship stands out, among other things, for its coordination in strengthening security through Operation Northern Border and the extradition of drug lords.

The results of this coordination between the two countries include the weakening of criminal organizations in their drug trafficking routes and financial flows, as well as in their infrastructure; in addition to the coordination between federal forces to reduce violence.

As of November 2025, the Ministry of Defense reported in an official document consulted by MILENIO that 10,000 National Guard personnel and 2,100 Army soldiers were assigned to the operation, of which 1,800 were dedicated to searching for and locating clandestine laboratories in Sinaloa, and 440 for tasks at customs checkpoints in the six northern border states: Baja California, Tamaulipas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo León.

What have been the results of the operation?

From the start of the operation on February 5, 2025, until January 12, the federal security cabinet separately highlighted that, as a result, 10,713 people were arrested, and 7,869 firearms, 1,327,568 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, and 35,086 magazines were seized.

Of these weapons, at least 44 are Barrett .50 caliber rifles, considered among the most lethal and highly sought after by organized crime due to their range and destructive capacity, the Ministry of Defense specified.

In addition, 119,327 kilograms of drugs were seized, including substances for the manufacture of methamphetamine, of which 601 kilograms were fentanyl. This synthetic opioid was precisely one of the main reasons why, at the beginning of his second presidency, Trump threatened Mexico with imposing a 25 percent tariff on its products, as a sanction for allegedly allowing its entry into the country.

Likewise, according to security authorities, 6,237 vehicles and 1,257 properties were confiscated.

Figures from the Army, obtained through transparency requests, also indicate that between January and July 2025, three tunnels were discovered; one of them in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, measuring 300 meters long and constructed with wood.

Another was found in Santa Cruz, Sonora, with a length of 80 meters, and the last one was located in Tijuana, Baja California, measuring 350 meters.

Although Trump has insisted that more work needs to be done by Mexico, he has also acknowledged the efforts led by the Mexican president.

For example, in March 2025, the US president referred to a call he had with Sheinbaum in which they discussed tariffs on Mexican products included in the USMCA trade agreement, from which Mexico was ultimately exempted.

“Have you noticed that they’ve been working much harder on this? (referring to the Mexican authorities). On the people crossing the border and on drugs, we’ve made tremendous progress on both,” he said in the Oval Office of the White House, a statement later posted on Donald Trump’s account.

The following month, he shared two videos on his Truth Social profile from the campaign promoted by the Mexican government under the slogan “Stay away from drugs. Fentanyl kills you,” which aims to reduce the consumption of this opioid.

This week, Sheinbaum stated that, in their most recent call, Trump acknowledged the progress made in security and the fight against fentanyl, and highlighted that the trafficking of this drug into the United States has been reduced by 50 percent thanks to seizures carried out by Mexican authorities.

“The trafficking of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States has been reduced by 50 percent. This is measured by the seizures they make on the other side of the border; CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) publishes how much fentanyl they have seized, and this has been cut in half in one year,” Sheinbaum said.

Mexico fulfills extradition orders

In another unprecedented event, within the framework of strengthening bilateral relations and judicial cooperation, the actions of the Sheinbaum administration to enforce extradition orders against Mexican criminals incarcerated in various prisons across the country stand out.

Due to their links to criminal groups and in accordance with the National Security Law, more than fifty criminals, mostly high-profile, were transferred to the neighboring country last year to be tried for serious crimes committed in the United States.

Among the districts requesting them are the Northern District of Illinois, the Middle District of North Carolina, the Southern District of Texas, the Eastern District of New York, the Central District of California, the District of Arizona, the District of Columbia, the District of New Mexico, the District of Delaware, and the District of Colorado.

The expected sentences range from a minimum of 10 years in prison to life imprisonment and the death penalty; however, as part of the agreements, the United States committed not to apply the latter.

In a press conference held on February 28, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Omar García Harfuch, commented that these actions were taken because there was a risk that they would be released or that their extradition would be delayed.

“The security cabinet has information that some of these individuals requested by the U.S. government were going to be released or that their extradition processes would continue to be delayed as a result of agreements with some judges who sought to favor them,” the federal official stated.

For his part, the then head of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), Alejandro Gertz, justified that the transfer was supported by Article 5 of the National Security Law and Article 89 of the Constitution, so it was not an extradition process, but rather a national security request. “Article 5 of the National Security Law, which has been in effect for 20 years, establishes the conditions under which, for the security of our country, and in accordance with a duly substantiated request from the United States government, this was done.  Based on the strictest interpretation of that federal law,” he pointed out.

The transfers were carried out in two large-scale operations that marked a significant shift in security cooperation policy between the two countries.

The first took place on February 27, when Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that 29 of the most wanted individuals had been taken into custody in the United States.

All those extradited face charges related to organized crime, drug trafficking, murder, illegal use of firearms, and money laundering, among other crimes.  They include leaders and managers of drug cartels.

Among those accused in that first extradition were:

Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the individuals held responsible for the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

The brothers Miguel Ángel, Z40, and Omar, Z42, Treviño Morales, leaders of Los Zetas and, at the time, two of the most wanted criminals for whom a reward was even offered.

Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, Tony Montana, considered one of the key figures in the leadership of the CJNG, and brother of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, El Viceroy, who led the Juárez Cartel, a once key organization in the drug trade to the neighboring country to the north.

José Jesús Méndez Vargas, El Chango, founding leader of the criminal group La Familia Michoacana and who directed the production and distribution of drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.

José Rodolfo Villarreal Hernández, El Gato, accused of stalking a man and conspiring to murder him on May 22, 2013, in Southlake, Texas. He is also considered among the leaders of the Beltrán Leyva organization in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León. Martin Sotelo, one of the alleged perpetrators of the murder of Deputy Ned Byrd, which occurred in North Carolina in 2022.

“Today, 29 fugitive cartel members have arrived in the United States from Mexico, including one name that stands out among the others for the men and women of the DEA: Rafael Caro Quintero (…) He has spent four decades at the top of the DEA’s most wanted list, and today we can proudly say that he has arrived in the United States, where justice will be served,” said Derek S. Maltz, acting head of the DEA.

On August 12, the second mass extradition took place, involving a total of 26 men, primarily operators of the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) and Northeast (formerly Zetas) Cartels, who face charges for drug trafficking, hostage-taking, kidnapping, illegal use of firearms, human trafficking, money laundering, murder of an agent, and other crimes.

Among those extradited were:

Servando Gómez Martínez, La Tuta, who was the leader of La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios.

Abigael González Valencia, Cuini, a member of Los Cuinis, a criminal organization allied with the CJNG.

Martín Zazueta Pérez, leader of the security apparatus of Los Chapitos.

Kevin Gil Acosta, operator and leader of hit squads protecting fentanyl laboratories and distribution routes for the group led by the sons of Joaquín Loera El Chapo Guzmán.

Abdul Karim Conteh, a native of Sierra Leone, Africa, involved in human trafficking to the United States.

Leobardo García Corrales, a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, responsible for trafficking fentanyl to the United States, and Luis Raúl Castro Valenzuela, Chacho, from the same cartel, accused of kidnapping a US citizen.

Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño Flaquito, a trafficker of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and cocaine, whose main distribution centers were San Diego and Los Angeles. 

Juan Carlos Félix Gastelum, El Chavo Félix, son-in-law of the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael El Mayo Zambada, and operator of clandestine methamphetamine manufacturing laboratories.

In the second week of January 2026, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) extradited three more individuals who were wanted by the judicial authorities of the state of Texas for their alleged involvement in various criminal cases for the crime of homicide.

Samuel ‘N’ is wanted by the District Court of Harris County; Francisco ‘N’ was extradited by the 111th District Court of Webb County, and José ‘N’ by the 188th District Court of Gregg County, Texas.

According to the FGR (Attorney General’s Office), these high-profile extraditions in 2025 were followed by the extradition of at least a dozen more individuals requested under the extradition agreement.

Source: Milenio