DOJ returns 13 convicted nationals to Mexico, highlighting cost savings

The United States has returned 13 Mexicans convicted of cause offenses successful the U.S. to Mexico to implicit their situation sentences.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the repatriation connected Monday, saying that the 13 unidentified inmates were sent to Mexico pursuant to the U.S.-Mexico International Prisoner Transfer Treaty.

#GanadoresyPerdedores | 🔴Estados Unidos transfirió a México a 13 connacionales que cumplían condenas en prisión por delitos relacionados con la distribución de drogas.
📺: @VictorPiz pic.twitter.com/BKzkbPmjdO

— El Financiero (@ElFinanciero_Mx) April 15, 2025

The repatriated Mexican criminals were handed implicit by U.S. authorities astatine the borderline betwixt El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and subsequently transferred to Nayarit connected a Mexican Air Force level and taken to a national situation successful the authorities superior Tepic, according to a connection issued by Mexico’s Security Ministry.

Matthew R. Galeotti, caput of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said that the “transfer of 13 national inmates to correctional authorities successful Mexico has saved the United States implicit $3 cardinal by eliminating the request to wage incarceration costs for the 75 years remaining connected their combined sentences.”

“The Justice Department’s International Prisoner Transfer Program, which is administered by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, enhances offender rehabilitation, reduces incarceration costs, and relieves overcrowding successful national prisons,” helium said.

The Justice Department said successful a connection that each 13 inmates sent to Mexico were serving “sentences relating to the organisation of controlled substances, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.”

“The inmates volition implicit the remainder of their sentences successful Mexico pursuant to the treaty. The inmates requested to beryllium transferred to their location country, and the governments of some the United States and Mexico approved these transfers,” the section said.

The transportation of the prisoners came six weeks aft Mexico sent 29 cartel figures including notorious cause lord Rafael Caro Quintero to the United States.

The New York Times reported astatine the clip that “the fig and value of the radical sent to the United States astatine the aforesaid clip made the lawsuit 1 of the astir important efforts by Mexico successful the modern past of the cause war.”

The U.S. Justice Department said connected Monday that the repatriation of the 13 Mexican inmates to Mexico was “the 184th specified transfer” since the U.S.-Mexico International Prisoner Transfer Treaty entered into unit successful 1977.

It’s the archetypal transportation of prisoners from the United States to Mexico since U.S. President Donald Trump began his 2nd word connected Jan. 20.

The astir caller transportation of Mexicans from U.S. prisons to Mexican jails occurred successful December 2024 erstwhile 9 inmates were repatriated pursuant to the 48-year-old bilateral captive transportation treaty.

Mexico News Daily