The Legal Loophole that Saw 29 Drug Kingpins Expelled to the US
Excerpt:
So how did over a decade of legal proceedings for extraditing cartel members fall by the wayside after trade negotiations and the designation of cartel groups and FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations)? What provision is Mexico using to justify bypassing the legal extradition process in Mexico?
Our answer was confirmed during the first hearing of longtime DEA target Rafael Caro-Quintero in New York Federal Court. Judge Robert M. Levy clarified in court Caro Quintero was expelled from Mexico under a provision within the national security law, which permits the Mexican government to remove an individual without undergoing the formal extradition process.
US authorities employed different terms, “transfer,” said the Attorney General’s Office, “extradition,” said the White House, “expulsion,” said the State Department.
Mexican Prosecutor General Alejandro Gertz clarified in a press conference that it was not an extradition, in accordance with the bilateral treaty on the matter between the two countries, but a “sending.” Security Secratery Omar García Harfuch spoke of a “transfer.” Gertz explained that the operation was carried out at the express request of the United States and that Mexico responded based on the National Security Law and the constitutional article that empowers the head of the government, President Claudia Sheinbaum, to preserve it.
Gertz has pointed out that Washington presented Mexico with a “formal,” “written,” and “concrete” request to carry out the operation specifically against the 29 drug lords within the framework of the Palermo Convention, the UN agreement to combat transnational organized crime that establishes guidelines on extradition (a recourse that, the official insisted, was not used).
.....Rather than extraditing the cartel leaders to the US, they instead were Expelled under Mexico’s national security laws. These expulsions did not need to be processed through the legal system, and do not fall under the extradition treaty signed by both countries.
.....Seldom used, is a provision not included in the treaty but part of Mexico’s constitution Article 89 for national security laws that allow for the Expulsion of persons, including Mexican citizens from the country should they pose a threat to the security of the country. Clearly drug cartels, especially with new terrorist designations fit that bill.
This expulsion allows for the US to seek the death penalty in several cases including Caro-Quintero’s as normally the treaty does not allow for capital punishment to be sought as part of their extraditions according to Article 22 of the Mexican Constitution. The DOJ, in their press release announcing the transfer of the 29 prisoners, several had their potential sentences listed as the death penalty.
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Potential death penalty, Trump effect?
Gavin Newsom & his allies just forced 12 historic family farms & dairies out of Point Reyes National Seashore in California.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1896805547837735304.html
Excerpt:
They claim it’s about saving the environment — but the truth couldn’t be more different.
For over 100 years, ranchers and dairy farmers have worked the land at Point Reyes. They built Marin’s organic food movement & supplied fresh milk to Californians.
Now they’re being forced out — by environmental groups, the federal government, and Newsom’s political allies.
When Congress created Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962, ranchers voluntarily sold their land to the federal government under one condition: they could keep ranching.
That promise lasted 60 years — until powerful environmental groups decided to change the rules.
In 2022, three environmental groups — Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds Project sued the National Park Service to block 20-year ranching leases.
The lawsuit set off a chain reaction that led to ranchers losing everything.
At first, the National Park Service defended the ranchers. But then The Nature Conservancy — a billion-dollar “nonprofit” with deep political ties to Newsom —stepped in to negotiate a secret deal.
The result? A $30M payout to ranchers who had no real choice but to leave.
he $30M payout might sound like a lot — until you realize it’s being split across multiple families and businesses.
“You don’t want to see the book closed,” said rancher Jarrod Mendoza, whose great-grandfather acquired the family’s land in 1919.
Mendoza needs financing to rebuild his family’s barn, which was destroyed in a storm. But thanks to the park’s refusal to grant long-term leases, he couldn’t get a loan.
Now, he’s being forced off his land altogether — along with 11 other ranching families.
Worse? The farmers were placed under a strict gag order — they legally cannot tell the public how this deal really went down.
Begs the question: if this was such a fair outcome, why was it done behind closed doors? Why are the ranchers being silenced?
And here’s where Biden & Trump come in:
- In 2019, Trump signed an executive order to protect farming in national parks.
- In 2021, Biden reversed it.
The final deal was reached in early January 2025, just weeks before Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025.
Who brokered the deal?
Rep. Jared Huffman, who represents Point Reyes.
Before Congress, he was an attorney for the NRDC, a powerful environmental lobbying group.
So was he negotiating for his constituents — or for the same activists who wanted the ranchers gone?
But this isn’t about protecting nature — it’s about business, politics, and ideology.
The Park Service now admits it will have to hire private grazing contractors to manage the land and reduce wildfire risk.
So cattle can stay — just not the families who raised them.
Environmental groups sold this as a win for conservation.
But the reality? It was a quiet land transfer — one that just happened to benefit some of the most politically connected non-profits in the country.
And once these farms are gone, they’re gone forever.