MEXICO CITY -- Mexico sent 10 alleged drug smugglers to the United States on Wednesday, capping an already record year for extraditions between the two countries.

Several were high-ranking members of Mexico’s most powerful drug gangs, including the Gulf and Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix cartels.  The suspects will face charges in California, Texas, Florida and Georgia, Mexico’s Attorney General’s office said in a news release.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza praised the action as another example of President Felipe Calderon’s determination to go after Mexico’s drug cartels.

“I heartily praise the extraordinary leadership, courage and conviction demonstrated by President Calderon and his national security team, as well as the hundreds of dedicated law enforcement professionals on both sides of our border who have made this success possible,” Garza said in a statement.

Wednesday’s group brings the number of suspects extradited to the United States to 95 this year, 12 more than in 2007.

Those extradited Wednesday included Jesus “Chuy” Labra Aviles, the former top financial leader for the Arellano-Felix gang who was arrested in 2000 in Tijuana, and Armando Martinez Duarte, a former federal police official who also worked as the chief of security for the Arellano-Felix gang, protecting its members from police raids.

Aviles and Martinez are wanted in California for drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering, Garza said.

In Texas, Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna, a former state police officer who allegedly became a top operative of the Gulf Cartel, will face charges for threatening to kill U.S. federal agents cooperating with Mexican authorities.

In Georgia, Jose Manuel Barrientos Rodriguez, who was in charge of distributing drugs for the Gulf Cartel in the Atlanta area, is wanted for trafficking cocaine and assaulting a federal officer, Garza said.

All but one of the suspects are Mexican citizens. Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, a Colombian citizen, is wanted in Florida on federal drug trafficking charges related to large cocaine shipments from Colombia to the United States.

Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has made it a priority to extradite drug suspects, who previously would operate from their Mexican jail cells.

In one of his first actions as president, Calderon extradited Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas to Texas as he kicked off his national campaign against organized crime.

Calderon has sent more than 40,000 troops across Mexico to confront traffickers, who have responded fiercely. Drug slayings have soared to more than 5,300 this year, twice the number in 2007, according to Mexico’s Attorney General’s office.

The Defense Department said this week that Mexican soldiers captured Alberto Espinoza Barron, an alleged high-ranking member of a drug gang known as “The Family” in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan.

A Defense statement alleges Espinoza was in charge of U.S.-bound

cocaine shipments arriving at the state’s Lazaro Cardenas port from

South America. He is also accused of bribing police, extorting

businesses and ordering kidnappings and killings.