What happened
Mexico yesterday 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.

What next?
Trump said Mexico and Canada will see 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.

What happened
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their New Mexico home on Wednesday, investigators said yesterday. "There was no obvious sign or indication of foul play," Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told reporters. But the "circumstances surrounding the death" were "suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation," the sheriff's office said in an affidavit for a search warrant.

Who said what
Hackman, 95, was found in an entryway after having apparently "suddenly fallen," the affidavit said, while Arakawa, 65, was discovered on her side in the bathroom, with a kenneled German shepherd dead nearby in a bathroom closet. The couple were discovered by workers at their Santa Fe gated community and they were believed to have been dead for several days, the affidavit said.

Arawaka's body showed signs of decomposition and "mummification in both hands and feet," and Hackman's body was in a similar state, the sheriff's department said. Preliminary autopsy results showed "no external trauma to either individual" and examinations of the house by the gas company and fire department found no signs of a gas or carbon monoxide leak. Results of carbon monoxide and toxicology tests are pending.

What next?
The affidavit suggests police have a working theory about "some kind of gas poisoning" but are keeping an open mind, Loyola Marymount law professor Laurie Levenson told The Associated Press. Reports with the final cause of death "generally take anywhere from 4-6 weeks to generate," New Mexico medical investigator's office spokesperson Chris Ramirez told CNN.