Mexican security chief confirms cartel family members entered US in a
deal with Trump administration
[May 14, 2025]
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's security chief confirmed
Tuesday that 17 family members of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S.
last week as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the
Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed a report by
independent journalist Luis Chaparro that family members of Ovidio
Guzman Lopez, who was extradited to the United States in 2023, had
entered the U.S.
Guzmán Lopez is one of the brothers left running a faction of the
Sinaloa Cartel after notorious capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was
imprisoned in the U.S. Video showed the family members walking across
the border from Tijuana with their suitcases to waiting U.S. agents.
Rumors had circulated last week that the younger Guzmán would plead
guilty to avoid trial for several drug trafficking charges in the U.S.
after being extradited in 2023.
García Harfuch confirmed the family members' crossing in a radio
interview and said it was clear to Mexican authorities that they were
doing so after negotiations between Guzmán López and the U.S.
government.
He believed that was the case because the former cartel boss, whose
lawyer said in January he had entered negotiations with U.S.
authorities, had been pointing fingers at members of other criminal
organizations likely as part of a cooperation agreement.
“It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a
negotiation or an offer that the Department of Justice is giving him,”
Garcia Harfuch said.
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A truck burns on a street in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Thursday, Jan.
5, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Urista, file)
He said that none of the family members were being pursued by
Mexican authorities and that the government of U.S. President Donald
Trump “has to share information” with Mexican prosecutors, something
it has not yet done.
The confirmation by García Harfuch comes the same day that the U.S.
Attorney General's Office announced it was charging a number of top
cartel leaders with “narcoterrorism” for the first time since the
Trump administration declared a number of cartels as foreign
terrorist organizations.
While prosecutors declined to comment on the video of the family,
U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California
and other officials sent a warning to cartel members, repeatedly
citing the Sinaloa Cartel by name.
“Let me be direct, to the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, you are no
longer the hunters, you are the hunted. You will be betrayed by your
friends, you will be hounded by your enemies, and you will
ultimately find yourself and your face here in a courtroom in the
Southern District of California,” Gordon said.
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