US returns 3 fugitives to face charges in Mexico

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said Sunday that U.S. authorities had returned to Mexico three fugitives wanted for crimes including murder.

In a social media post, Johnson wrote that one of the fugitives is a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of eight Mexican criminal groups that the U.S. government has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

Our cooperation, driven by @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @ClaudiaShein, sends criminals a clear message: you will be caught and held accountable. In just one day, U.S. authorities returned three fugitives wanted in Mexico: a member of the CJNG narco-terrorist… pic.twitter.com/DpRj0jxvsd

— Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) August 16, 2026

“Our cooperation, driven by @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @ClaudiaShein, sends criminals a clear message: you will be caught and held accountable,” he wrote on X.

“In just one day, U.S. authorities returned three fugitives wanted in Mexico: a member of the CJNG narco-terrorist organization wanted on a firearms charge in Guanajuato, a fugitive wanted for murder in Zacatecas, and a third wanted for fraud,” Johnson wrote.  

Photographs included in the ambassador’s post showed the fugitives in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Johnson didn’t say where or when the suspects were detained and handed over to Mexican authorities, and he didn’t identify them by name.

His announcement on Sunday came two months after he said on X that the United States had transferred 313 wanted criminals to Mexico to face justice during President Donald Trump’s second administration. Johnson’s June 15 social media post came almost a month after the Mexican government asserted that the United States hadn’t sent to Mexico any of the 269 people whose extradition it requested between January 2018 and May 2026.

“They haven’t sent anyone,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said on May 19.

She said those people include factureros (fake invoice brokers), ex-governors, people accused of organized crime and people linked to the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014.

“There has been no handover of any of these alleged criminals to Mexico,” Sheinbaum said, although in 2022 former Chihuahua governor César Duarte was extradited to Mexico from the U.S. to face corruption charges.

“What does Mexico always ask for? … Reciprocity. Why haven’t they handed anyone over?” asked the president, whose government has sent over 90 organized crime figures to the U.S. in three large transfers that took place in January 2026, August 2025 and February 2025.

U.S. authorities are currently seeking the extradition of Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and other current and former Sinaloa-based officials who U.S. prosecutors accuse of drug trafficking in league with the Sinaloa Cartel. Sheinbaum has endorsed the determination from the FGR and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the U.S. Justice Department hasn’t provided sufficient “proof” to establish the probable guilt of Rocha, who is currently on leave, and the other defendants, two of whom turned themselves in to U.S. authorities in May.