A car accident, a series of secret wiretaps, a shootout with police and a drug bust eventually led federal investigators back to cartel leaders in Mexico.

Mexico sent more than two dozen suspected cartel members to the U.S. on Tuesday, amid rising pressure from President Donald Trump to dismantle the country's powerful drug organizations.

The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on more than a dozen Mexican companies and four people it says worked with a powerful drug trafficking cartel to scam elderly Americans in a multimillion-dollar timeshare fraud.

In 2019, two drug dealers got into a car accident in Rockwood. Six years later, investigations revealed how Mexican cartels were trafficking drugs to U.S. towns.

Mexico's security chief Omar García Harfuch and US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the deal in separate statements.

A Ugandan National, Michael Katungi Mpeirwe, has been indicted in the US for conspiracy to supply military-grade weaponry to Mexican drug cartels. According to the United States Justice Department, Katungi is a Ugandan national with connections to the government who works with ASUMO in acquiring EUCs and DVPs in Africa.

Roberto Martinez-Cabrera of Kennewick was sentenced by U.S. Judge Mary Dimke to 10 years in prison and five years probation for conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and distributing 40 grams or more of fentanyl.