US pushes Mexico to prosecute politicians with ties to drug cartels

The Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to organized crime, and to extradite them to the United States if there are criminal charges to answer there, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The requests - raised at least three times by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team in bilateral meetings and conversations with Mexican officials - seek to push President Claudia Sheinbaum's government to investigate current elected officials and launch an unprecedented crackdown on narco corruption, four people familiar with the matter said.

In their discussions, the US officials have called for action against several politicians from Sheinbaum's own Morena party and threatened to levy further tariffs if Mexico did not take action, two of the sources said.

The conversations have not been previously reported.

Trump goes on the attack against Mexico's cartels

A crackdown - potentially targeting high-ranking elected officials while they are in office - would mark a dramatic escalation of Mexico's efforts against drug corruption. But it carries political risks for Sheinbaum, as some of the allegations involve members of her own party, a member of her security cabinet told Reuters.

The US first raised the request at a meeting in Washington on February 27 led by Rubio and Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente, the four people familiar with the matter said. US Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials from the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice as well as Treasury attended the meeting, the four people said. Mexico's Attorney General Alejandro Gertz and Secretary of Security Omar Garcia Harfuch were also at the meeting.

The Mexican Presidency, foreign ministry, Attorney General's Office and Security Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the talks. The White House, State Department, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security also did not reply to Reuters questions.

Mexico sent 29 cartel figures to the US in late February - the largest such handover in years - following Trump's threats to impose across-the-board tariffs on Mexican goods. The possibility of expediting the capture and/or deportation of priority DEA and FBI targets was also discussed, two of the sources said.

As part of the discussions, two of the people familiar with the matter said, US officials floated the idea of appointing a US fentanyl czar to liaise directly with Sheinbaum on progress to combat the deadly synthetic opioid.

Washington also pressed Mexico for more thorough inspections of US-bound cargo and travelers at the US-Mexico border.