Mexico extradites 29 cartel figures amid US tariff threat

What happened

Mexico Thursday flew 29 accused drug cartel leaders and operatives to eight U.S. cities to face criminal charges. The unprecedented mass extradition was carried out as Mexican officials were in Washington to try to fend off President Donald Trump's threat to hit Mexico and Canada with 25% tariffs next week, purportedly over drug smuggling.

Who said what

The extradited cartel suspects included "two leaders of the hyper-violent Zetas cartel" and Rafael Caro Quintero, a "prized target long sought in the killing of a U.S. narcotics agent," Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, in 1985, The Washington Post said. Caro Quintero, 72, was considered "one the founders of Mexico's international drug smuggling industry," The Wall Street Journal said. Getting ahold of him has long been "all but an obsession" for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, The New York Times said.

The dramatic handover of alleged drug kingpins and killers was "all part and parcel of the package the Mexican government is putting on the table to avoid the 25% tariffs," Brookings Institution drug policy analyst Vanda Felbab-Brown told the Post.

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What next?

Trump said Mexico and Canada would get hit with 25% tariffs March 4, telling reporters that fentanyl and other drugs "continue to pour into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of people." U.S. federal data show "Canada plays almost no role in the smuggling of fentanyl or other deadly street drugs," and fentanyl trafficking from Mexico has "plunged," with a 50% year-over-year drop in January, NPR said. U.S. overdose deaths have "also fallen at an unprecedented pace," with a 30% decline in fentanyl deaths alone.