Mike Baker

That's according to a reporting from Fox News.

The handovers come as U.S.

pressure on Mexico's cartels intensifies, shifting from arrests and law enforcement cooperation toward open military warnings.

with President Trump publicly suggesting that U.S.

forces could strike land-based narco-terror targets if needed.

It also follows direct conversations between President Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum just last week, where the White House made clear it expects faster, more decisive action against fentanyl networks.

A Mexico analyst with the International Crisis Group told the Associated Press, quote, this is Mexico resorting to extraordinary measures as pressure from the White House increases, end quote.

But Mexico's security chief defended the transfers on public safety grounds, arguing that cartel leaders were continuing to direct criminal operations even while incarcerated inside Mexican prisons.

In other words, officials are framing the extraditions not just as cooperation with Washington, but as a domestic security necessity.

Still, the political backdrop is impossible to ignore.

Scheinbaum has acknowledged the pressure that she's facing from the Trump administration while maintaining that U.S.

military involvement inside Mexico is unnecessary and unwelcome.

Publicly, she's emphasized cooperation and coordination, but privately, well, privately, she's navigating a narrowing path between domestic backlash over concerns of foreign interference and

and Washington's growing impatience with the pace and effectiveness of Mexico's campaign against the cartels.

With Tuesday's extraditions, the total number of cartel figures sent to the U.S.

since Trump's second term began now sits at 92.

As we previously covered on the PDB, the first handover came last February when Mexican authorities transferred 29 cartel figures to U.S.

custody, including veteran trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, long sought by American authorities for his role in the 1985 killing of DEA agent Kiki Camarena.

A second transfer in August followed, with 26 members from multiple cartel organizations flown north.

Taken together, the transfers point to a clear pattern.