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.

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

Treasury aims to disrupt Cartel del Noreste’s leadership and financial networks tied to violence and drug trafficking.

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.

On Thursday, the Justice Department unsealed indictments connected to an investigation that began in 2019 in a "after two drug dealers got into a car accident in a small Tennessee town" and resulted in charges against cartel leaders in Mexico,

Mexico cartel leaders are among the 26 fugitives who are set to be punished in the United States. Jordon Hudson, the current girlfriend of former NFL coach Bill Belichick, and his ex-girlfriend, Linda Holliday, attended the same fundraiser