AG Kris Mayes pledges Arizona will ramp up extradition of drug traffickers from Mexico

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' office will ramp up work to extradite drug traffickers from foreign nations as part of the Democratic prosecutor's efforts to combat fentanyl coming into the state.

"We are going to reach into Mexico and bring the leaders of these drug cartels back to Arizona for prosecution," Mayes said. "We are going to disrupt, dismantle and try to destroy these drug trafficking organizations."

It's an undertaking much easier said than done, as extradition involves coordination with the federal government and untangling a patchwork of international treaties and foreign laws. Not to mention the investigative work needed on the front end to put together witnesses and evidence to make a case.

Mayes has hired a veteran prosecutor, Adena Bernstein, to lead those efforts as well as serve as coordinator for her office's response to the fentanyl crisis. Bernstein began in December and will be paid a $145,000 salary, according to the Attorney General's Office. She came from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, where she had worked for much of the previous 25 years. Bernstein most recently handled cases involving international extraditions there.

"The Attorney General's Office has not seriously been involved in this type of extradition work for about the last 14 or 15 years," Mayes said Tuesday at an event debuting a public service announcement to warn Arizonans about the dangers of the deadly synthetic opioid. "But we have prioritized these cases and are ensuring that those guilty of trafficking and selling drugs do not evade prosecution by fleeing the state or the country for the first time in a long, long time."

That's not to say extraditions haven't occurred at all, though they are hard to quantify.

The state Attorney General's Office, U.S. Marshals Service, and U.S. Department of Justice — all of which are involved in the extradition process — said they did not have extradition data at the state level.

Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich did not comment directly on the accuracy of Mayes' assessment, but annual reports from his eight years in office show one military member who was brought back from Germany to face charges of sexual abuse.

Brnovich, a Republican who held the office from 2015 to January 2023, said in an email "there would be less need to extradite criminals from Mexico if Joe Biden hadn't allowed the drug cartels to seize control of our southern border."

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The administration of former Attorney General Tom Horne was able to extradite two individuals from Mexico in 2013 as part of a marijuana trafficking case, according to news releases from the time. The individuals were extradited about 2 1/2 years after they were indicted on Arizona charges.

Horne, a Republican, is now the state superintendent of public instruction and was attorney general from 2011 to 2015. He and Carmen Chenal Horne, who handled extradition cases in those years and whom Horne later married, said building relationships with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Justice was key to navigating a difficult and long extradition process.

A review of cases that could lead to extradition includes seeing if any have passed a statute of limitations for prosecution — either in Arizona or the foreign nation — and whether witnesses were still available to testify, Bernstein said. She said there could be cases that may not be prosecuted because they were not acted upon sooner.

Bernstein said international treaties allow some countries to quickly process extraditions, while others can take longer. Mexico can take two to three years, she said.

The effort was welcomed by Arizona's federal prosecutor. U.S. Attorney Gary M. Restaino, whose deputies use extradition as a step to "dismantling command and control of criminal organizations," said it was "a good deterrent tool as well for our colleagues at the State.”

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Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669 .

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AG Kris Mayes pledges Arizona will ramp up extradition of drug traffickers from Mexico