𝐀𝐒 𝐌𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐂𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟔 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐋 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔.𝐒., 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐒 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐌𝐋𝐎'𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝟒𝟑 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟒 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐃

by Jim Barton    Sources: CrashOut, AP, Bader Report, CNN          

Cartoon by Rainier Hachfeld

In May 2021, Mexican authorities moved Abigael González Valencia, known as “El Cuini,” from the country’s top security prison, El Altiplano, to a jail in Mexico City. González Valencia, described as the financial mastermind of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), secured the transfer by agreeing to cooperate with investigators in the case of the 43 student teachers who disappeared in Ayotzinapa in 2014. The arrangement allowed him to delay extradition to the United States, where he faced indictments for trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine.

Three years later, in August, that protection collapsed. Mexican soldiers placed González Valencia on a plane bound for Washington as part of the mass expulsion of 26 cartel figures deemed national security threats. His significance was underscored by the personal presence of DEA chief Terrance Cole, who escorted him in handcuffs off the aircraft.

The circumstances of his cooperation in the Ayotzinapa case remain murky. The disappearances were attributed to the Guerreros Unidos cartel and local police in Iguala, far from Jalisco, where González Valencia operated. Officials have failed to produce concrete evidence or testimony he may have provided. One former investigator bluntly told CrashOut that González Valencia “didn’t give a fucking thing to help the investigation,” pointing out he belonged to the wrong cartel.

Nonetheless, his case became entangled in promises made by then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, who pledged to finally resolve the atrocity after winning office in 2018. In 2024, López Obrador admitted he had personally delayed González Valencia’s extradition, claiming it was part of an agreement with another controversial witness, Guerreros Unidos enforcer Gildardo “El Cabo Gil” López Astudillo. Gil allegedly helped identify two victims’ remains, but his own record was checkered: he was arrested, released, and re-arrested, and his testimony is widely regarded as unreliable.

During López Obrador’s six-year presidency, several cartel operatives received benefits while claiming to aid the Ayotzinapa probe, casting a shadow over the investigation. The original crime took place in September 2014, when police in Iguala abducted students who had commandeered buses. They were handed over to Guerreros Unidos, which trafficked heroin to Chicago. To date, only the remains of three of the 43 missing have been identified, leaving the others unaccounted for and cementing the case as a national symbol of violence and impunity.

López Obrador’s government formed a truth commission and special investigative unit that challenged the “historic truth” presented by Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration and even charged Peña Nieto’s former attorney general with covering up the crime. But the new investigation became mired in its own controversies. Prosecutors leaned on cartel witnesses whose testimonies were inconsistent and sometimes falsified. Arrest warrants against soldiers and officials collapsed in court, including one against Guerrero’s former attorney general, Iñaki Blanco, who dismissed the accusations as absurd. “Obviously a criminal will tell you what you want to hear,” Blanco said, questioning why investigators granted such status to figures like Gil.

The reliance on cartel operatives like González Valencia highlighted the fragility of Mexico’s judicial approach. While U.S. prosecutors also cut deals with traffickers, the benefits afforded to Cuini raised alarms even by those standards. In the end, his expulsion to the United States coincided with a broader crackdown.

On Tuesday, Mexico delivered 26 cartel leaders to U.S. custody, repeating a similar mass transfer earlier this year. Among those handed over were figures tied to the CJNG, Sinaloa, and the Knights Templar cartels, including Servando “La Tuta” Gómez. The U.S. Justice Department hailed the move as a milestone in dismantling networks flooding American streets with drugs. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed the defendants would face “severe consequences,” while U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson said the operation proved what was possible when both governments stood united.

The transfers also underscored the shifting politics of security cooperation. President Claudia Sheinbaum, under pressure from Donald Trump’s administration to rein in cartels and fentanyl production, has adopted a more aggressive stance than her predecessor while insisting on Mexico’s sovereignty. Analysts note that such mass handovers may buy Mexico time to negotiate trade disputes with Washington but warn they could trigger violent cartel reprisals in the future.

González Valencia, brother-in-law of CJNG boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, had been in Mexican custody since 2015. Along with his brothers, he helped finance the rise of one of Mexico’s most feared cartels, accused of trafficking vast quantities of drugs while deploying extreme violence. His final handover to U.S. authorities may mark the end of his personal bargaining power, but it leaves unresolved questions about how and why his cooperation was ever tied to one of Mexico’s darkest crimes.