A son-in-law of one of Mexico’s most storied drug kingpins and a man who Mexican officials had described as one of the “main generators of violence” in the Tijuana region both made initial appearances Wednesday in San Diego federal court, a day after they were expelled from Mexico as part of a deal with the Trump administration.
Juan Carlos Félix Gastelum, son-in-law of jailed Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, who was arrested in June in Tijuana, both face indictments alleging international drug importation conspiracies, among other counts.
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Attorneys representing both men asked the court to enter not guilty pleas to all counts. The attorneys also declined to comment on the allegations against their clients.
“Those who export dangerous drugs and smuggle aliens to the United States while seeking to evade capture will find no place to hide,” San Diego-area U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement. “Today is a win, but justice is not satisfied. The work of the Homeland Security Task Forces ensures that the indictment of high-level targets will remain a top priority nationally, but especially, in the Southern District of California.”
The two men were among 26 alleged cartel figures that Mexican authorities expelled to the United States on Tuesday. Mexican officials said Wednesday that the Trump administration had requested those individuals, but their mass expulsion was not part of the wider negotiations involving higher tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump.
Instead, Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in a news conference that their removal to the U.S. was designed to “prevent these criminals from continuing to operate from within prisons and to break up their networks of influence.”
Ilan Katz, a Mexico City-based defense attorney who specializes in white-collar crime, said that reasoning made sense from Mexico’s point of view.
“There has been a proven ability by very, very high-profile drug lords to maintain influence in Mexican prisons,” Katz said. “One of the best ways to make sure that stops is to transfer them to American prisons.”
Katz said Mexico’s government was taking its toughest stance by sending those individuals to be prosecuted in the U.S.
“The worst-case scenario for most of these men is not being in prison, it’s being in prison in the U.S.,” he said.
Huerta, who is known as “El Flaquito” and allegedly rose to power in Tijuana by deploying extreme violence, was arrested in June during an early morning operation in Tijuana’s Fundadores neighborhood. An indictment unsealed Wednesday revealed that a federal grand jury in San Diego had indicted Huerta one month earlier on charges related to the importation and distribution of methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine, as well as a charge related to money laundering.
Mexican media outlets have identified Huerta as an alleged leader of a remnant cell of the once-powerful Arellano Félix Organization. That cell is reportedly allied with one of the two main factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, according to the University of San Diego’s Justice in Mexico project.
Zeta Tijuana, an investigative magazine, reported in 2023 that Huerta’s Arellano Félix cell had colluded with corrupt Tijuana police officers to steal a massive drug shipment from a rival Sinaloa faction — an episode that prompted cartel hitmen to hunt down and kill the dirty cops.
When Huerta was arrested, Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila called it “one of the most significant hits (to organized crime) in the state.” Baja California’s security secretary said Huerta was responsible “for drug trafficking … as well as stealing drugs from opposing groups.”
Huerta had repeatedly evaded capture over the years, according to Mexican news reports, including in December 2023, when he allegedly sought medical help at a hospital after being shot. Authorities rushed to surround the hospital, but Huerta allegedly escaped anyway.
Félix Gastelum, known as “El Chavo Félix,” was arrested in January in Culiacán, Sinaloa, the stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel. Félix is married to a daughter of Zambada, who once led the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Documents unsealed Wednesday revealed that prosecutors in San Diego secured an indictment against Félix nearly three years ago, in September 2022. The indictment accuses him of an international conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine and conspiracy to import cocaine and methamphetamine.
The Department of Justice said Tuesday that Félix was a “principal operator” of the Sinaloa Cartel’s hidden meth labs in Mexico’s Sierra Madre.
Also sent from Mexico to San Diego was Sierra Leone national Abdul Karim Conteh, the reputed leader of a Tijuana-based international criminal group suspected of smuggling thousands of undocumented migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East into the U.S.
Abdul Karim Conteh of Sierra Leone (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
Mexican authorities arrested Conteh in July 2024 in Tijuana. His arrest was announced the same day the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against his alleged human-smuggling organization.
Tuesday’s mass expulsion by Mexico was the second of its kind in recent months. In February, Mexico handed over 29 other alleged cartel figures, including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the 1985 killing of Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
The February transfers came just days before 25% tariffs on Mexican imports were to take effect, while top Mexican officials were in the U.S. trying to negotiate a halt to the tariffs. Tuesday’s transfers came weeks after Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to pause 30% tariffs for another 90 days while negotiations continue.
Katz, the Mexican defense attorney, said Trump’s threatened tariffs are the “elephant in every room” when it comes to U.S.-Mexico diplomacy.
“But I think these expulsions have a lot more to do with a Mexican government that’s doing its best effort of changing the way of organized violence in the country,” Katz said. “This is the best way to get it done.”