A 15-minute walk from the White House, Tony and Mike stood on the sidewalk near the spot where a man was killed on Monday, the 100th murder of the year in Washington.The shooting broke out just a few hours after President Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the US capital, which Trump described as overrun by crime — though official data shows that violence has recently decreased.”It’s sickening,” Tony told AFP early Tuesday. “It’s not safe anymore.””You do need change, you do need help,” Mike said.But Mike added that the city does not need the help Trump is sending in — “not National Guards.”The day after Trump’s press conference, residents of the area near the city center told stories of drug sales on the street, but were skeptical that federal intervention would make a difference.Tony has always lived in the area and, like the other residents interviewed, did not want to give his last name.He described a local street corner as an “open air market” with “all the drugs that you want.”Anne, who was holding pruning shears as she weeded, said needles are often discovered in the flowerbed of the church on the corner.It was near this spot that Tymark Wells, 33, was shot around 7:00 pm Monday before later dying in hospital, according to a police report that did not mention a motive or suspect.- ‘Stunt’ -The area is the “wild wild West and it’s always been like that,” said Lauren, who lives in a building nearby.”We’re so desensitized,” the 42-year-old added.When Trump announced his DC plan, he said it was “becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness.”However the Department of Justice said in January that violent crime in Washington recently hit its lowest level in 30 years.Because of easy access to guns in the United States, the crime number still “may look differently in America than it does in other parts of the world,” Brianne Nadeau, a member of DC’s overwhelmingly Democratic city council, told AFP.”But we have made substantial strides here,” she said, calling Trump’s federal takeover a “political stunt.”The annual number of homicides in the city peaked at 274 in 2023, before falling to 187 last year. That is still one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the country.Trump also justified the takeover by citing the number of homeless people in the city.Ace, a 16-year-old walking her dog, said the presence of the homeless contributed to the feeling of insecurity.Sometimes unhoused people would get on top of her parents’ car, she said. “You don’t know if they are going to break in.”- ‘Only the beginning’ -While waiting for the National Guard, around 850 federal agents were deployed to Washington on Monday, making 23 arrests, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.”This is only the beginning,” she said.National Guard troops started to appear on the US capital’s streets Tuesday night, with their armored vehicles rolling past the Washington Monument at sunset.Terry Cole, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration tasked with leading the federal takeover of the city’s police, said patrolling would be ramped up. Federal agents and police will work “hand in hand” during these patrols, Cole added.The city’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has been forced to accommodate the takeover, said this approach is “the wrong way to do it.”Federal agents are not trained to go out on patrol, she said.On Tuesday night, Bowser used her strongest words yet to criticize the takeover, describing it as “an authoritarian push” during an online conversation with residents on social media.Tom, who lives near the scene of Monday’s shooting, told AFP there were not enough police patrols in the area.But he also criticized Trump’s “draconian approach,” saying it was unlikely to “yield any good results.”Across the street, a small memorial stood in tribute to a different shooting victim.A picture of a young Black man has been wrapped around a tree, with flowers arrayed at its base.Turell Delonte, 30, was shot dead by police at the spot in 2023, after he was suspected of drug trafficking.

Justice officials said Tuesday that Mexico has sent 26 wanted fugitives to the United States, including alleged Mexican drug cartel kingpins, amid pressure to crack down on cross-border fentanyl smuggling.”These fugitives are collectively alleged to have imported into the United States tonnage quantities of dangerous drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and heroin,” the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.US officials released a list of those extradited and currently in their custody, saying they are fugitives wanted for “violent and serious crimes” including drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling and the murder of a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy in 2008, among other crimes. US Attorney General Pam Bondi called the transfer “the latest example of the Trump administration’s historic efforts to dismantle cartels and foreign terrorist organizations.”The transfer was made “at the solicitation of the US Department of Justice,” which “agreed not to seek the death penalty for the prisoners in its country,” according to a joint statement from the Attorney General of Mexico and Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Civilian Safety.The US embassy in Mexico said in a statement that kingpins from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel are among those who were extradited — both groups which were designated as terrorist organizations by the US in February.- ‘Common enemies’ -“These fugitives will now face justice in US courts, and the citizens of both of our nations will be safer from these common enemies,” US Ambassador Ronald Johnson said in a statement, praising the government of Mexico “for demonstrating resolve in the face of organized crime.”Among the drug dealers sent to the United States in Tuesday’s transfer was Los Cuinis leader Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, whose cartel is accused of trafficking tons of cocaine from South America through Mexico and into the United States.It also included the Sinaloa Cartel’s Leobardo Garcia Corrales, who is accused of trafficking fentanyl into the United States in exchange for weapons “such as AK-47s, grenades and submachine guns,” US DOJ officials said.Abdul Karim Conteh is alleged to have smuggled thousands of migrants through Mexico from around the world — including Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Kazakhstan and other countries — “by various surreptitious and unlawful means, including the use of ladders and tunnels” to cross the US border, officials said.Another transferred fugitive is Roberto Salazar, who is “wanted in connection with the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Escalante,” who was killed while leaving his home in 2008, the DOJ said.All those transferred face a maximum sentence of life in prison, except Conteh, who faces a maximum of 45 years, if convicted.The handover comes as the North American neighbors negotiate a security agreement that addresses drugs and arms trafficking. The prisoners were moved under an abbreviated legal procedure, authorities said, which excludes some measures provided in traditional extradition cases.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government defended the move, saying some drug lords regain freedom through judicial corruption. The transfer is the second such instance since Trump returned to the White House in January.In late February, Mexico transferred 29 accused narcotraffickers to the United States, including prominent cartel kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, who was accused of kidnapping and killing DEA special agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.The US currently has other kingpins in custody, including Sinaloa Cartel founders Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who received a life sentence, and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who is awaiting trial.Sheinbaum has pledged to collaborate with Washington on tackling drug trafficking, while rejecting any “invasion” of her country’s sovereignty.