Handcuffed and bowed: Unreleased videos of the transfer of 26 Mexican prisoners to the US are revealed

Mexican authorities released the first videos detailing the operation in which 26 Mexican cartel members were handed over to US justice on August 12, 2025.

The sequence of images demonstrates the magnitude of the operation: prisoners in beige uniforms, handcuffed, holding each other while being guided to the aircraft that would transport them to US territory.

The custody was carried out under strict protocols at facilities of the 501st Air Squadron of the Mexican Air Force.

High-profile members of criminal organizations appear in the recordings, including Abigael González Valencia “El Cuini”; Juan Carlos Félix Gastélum “El Chavo Félix,” cell leader and son-in-law of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada; among other bosses. A fragment of the video shows the moment when a guard asks one of the inmates for his name, who answers in a low voice: “Jesús Guzmán Castro,” better known by the aliases “El Chuy” or “El Narizón,” an operator of the Sinaloa Cartel’s La Mayiza.

The scenes show the meticulous organization. The detainees are handcuffed and walking in formation, each held at the waist. At times, several inmates are seen sitting with their heads bowed, under strict surveillance by federal agents, in the waiting room of the military airport, waiting to be boarded.

The operation, led by the Attorney General’s Office and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, was carried out under guidelines of discretion and maximum security. Members of the National Guard, the National Defense Forces, and the Navy participated in isolating the perimeter of the facilities and securing the transfer.

This is the second mass transfer so far in 2025. A similar operation was carried out last February involving 29 drug lords, including Rafael Caro Quintero, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Viceroy,” and the brothers Miguel Ángel and Omar Treviño Morales, leaders of Los Zetas.