By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. has been deported to Mexico, where he’s wanted for alleged cartel ties, following his arrest in the U.S. for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application.

Chávez was handed over by authorities and admitted to a prison in the northern state of Sonora, an official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Chávez, 39, had a warrant for his arrest in Mexico for alleged arms and drug trafficking and ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. Alejandro Gertz Manero, Mexico’s attorney general, said the investigation into Chávez started in 2019.

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The boxer, who is the son of legendary Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez, was arrested July 3 days after his high-profile fight with Jake Paul in California.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said after the arrest she hoped the boxer would be deported to face his charges.

Chávez’s father was a massive celebrity in the 1980s and ’90s who mixed social circles with drug dealers and claimed to have been friends with drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

The younger Chávez has battled drug addiction for much of his boxing career, failing drug tests, serving suspensions and egregiously missing weight while being widely criticized for his intermittent dedication to the sport.

Chavez won the WBC middleweight title in 2011 and defended it three times. He shared the ring with generational greats Canelo Álvarez and Sergio Martinez, losing to both.

In 2012, he was convicted of drunken driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail. In January 2024, he was arrested on gun charges. Police said he possessed two AR-style ghost rifles. He was later freed on a $50,000 bond and on condition he went to a residential drug treatment facility. The case is still pending, with Chávez reporting his progress regularly.

Minnesota United set out to add Under-22 Initiative signings this summer and one target has come into focus on Tuesday.

GiveMeSport’s Tom Bogert reports the Loons have submitted a more than $2 million bid for 20-year-old winger Relebohile Mofokeng from Orlando Pirates in South Africa.

MNUFC had success in bringing Bongi Hlongwane up from Soth Africa using an U22 spot, and the club appears to be going back to that well.

Mofokeng, a member of South Africa’s senior national team, had five goals and seven assists in 2,291 minutes in the Premiership during the 2024-25 season, according to FBref.com.

The Loons have two vacant U22 spots available before the summer transfer window closes Thursday.

This story will be updated.

By MARÍA VERZA, Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum denied her administration had an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Tuesday, hours after the U.S. agency announced “a major new initiative” to collaborate in the fight against drug cartels.

Sheinbaum was referring to “Project Portero,” an effort announced Monday by the DEA, calling it a “flagship operation” against smuggling routes that move drugs, guns and money across the border.

“The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying that there is an agreement with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing. “There is no agreement with the DEA. The DEA puts out this statement, based on what we don’t know. We have not reached any agreement, none of the security institutions (have) with the DEA.”

The U.S. embassy in Mexico and the DEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sheinbaum said the only thing happening was a workshop in Texas attended by four members of Mexico’s police force.

The DEA statement mentioned that workshop, saying it had brought Mexican investigators to one of its intelligence centers to train with U.S. prosecutors, law enforcement, defense officials and members of the intelligence community.

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The visibly annoyed president made her comments just days after generally positive exchanges between the two governments following another extension to ward off threatened U.S. tariffs and another shipment of 26 drug cartel figures to the U.S. from Mexico.

Mexico had seemed to be repairing the security relationship with the United States after six years of tension under Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had reined in DEA agents operating in Mexico and accused the agency of wholesale fabrication when it arrested Mexico’s former defense secretary.

Sheinbaum’s administration had taken a more aggressive stance toward pursuing Mexico’s drug cartels and sent dozens of cartel figures sought by U.S. prosecutors to the United States.

Sheinbaum did say that members of her administration had been working for months with U.S. counterparts on a broader security agreement that was practically finished. She said that agreement was based on four principles her administration has stressed for months: sovereignty, mutual trust, territorial respect and coordination without subordination.

The thing that seemed to have her bristling Tuesday was the DEA sending out a statement without proper coordination.

Sheinbaum said she asked the DEA to respect Mexico, to follow agreed-upon protocols for such announcements, and emphasized that Mexico only signs agreements with the U.S. government, not with individual agencies.

The DEA statement included a comment from agency administrator Terry Cole, who was recently tapped to lead the Trump administration takeover of the Washington D.C. police.

“Project Portero and this new training program show how we will fight — by planning and operating side by side with our Mexican partners, and by bringing the full strength of the U.S. government to bear,” Cole said in the Monday statement.

The 3M Open date remains unchanged, again scheduled for the second-to-last weekend in July in 2026.

Its spot within the PGA Tour schedule, however, was adjusted by a week.

There lies the problem.

The Tour’s schedule weas bumped back a week this year, which pushes next year’s Tour Championship to the last weekend in August. So how is the TPC Twin Cities stop still on the same spot on the calendar?

One event – the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Michigan – was moved to the last weekend in July and will be played the week following the 3M Open, with the Wyndham Championship still being the final event of the regular season.

That could cause fewer big-name players to make the transcontinental flight to the Twin Cities.

The 3M Open has long been in the disadvantageous spot of taking place the week after the final major of the year – The Open Championship.

But Minnesota’s PGA Tour stop had one thing going for it as the second-to-last event pre-playoffs – guys sometimes had no choice but to play in Blaine in the pursuit of points if they had goals on getting into the top 70 to reach the postseason or trying to secure a top-50 spot to clinch their position in the following year’s high-payout, no-cut signature events.

That’s one of the reasons the likes of Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott and Wyndham Clark were in the 2025 field.

Now, with two more point-earning possibilities between the 3M Open and the playoff, it will be easier for players to justify taking a week off following their overseas competition(s) to recharge for a potential playoff push.

Because anyone playing in the 3M Open in an attempt to qualify for the playoffs could be setting themselves up to play six or seven events in a row, which is uncommon for players.

The tournament has done a good job attracting relatively appealing fields with a deck stacked against it in recent years, the challenge did appear to just get a bit more difficult.

Other 2026 schedule notes

Trump National Doral is back on the PGA Tour schedule next year as a signature event that is sure to test how often the top golfers want to play during an extraordinary spring of five big tournaments in a six-week stretch.

Doral long was considered the start of the Florida swing, a can’t-miss event as the PGA Tour began attracting international stars.

Next year it will be a $20 million signature event the first weekend in May, part of a stretch that starts with the Masters, ends with the PGA Championship and has three signature events in the four weeks in between.

That also means players not eligible for those big events would have only two tournaments to play — one of them with a minimal purse — in that six-week stretch.

“We’re excited to showcase the game’s greatest players competing at golf’s most iconic venues,” said Brian Rolapp, the tour’s new CEO.

There’s virtually no change from the 2025 schedule except for a few tournaments changing dates, the Mexico Open moving to the fall and moving the opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic from March (against Bay Hill) to July (against the British Open).

The PGA Tour lost the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, Calif., that had been opposite the British Open. It was the only tournament that used the modified Stableford scoring system.

Still to be determined is a title sponsor for what now is called the Miami Championship.

Doral first became part of the PGA Tour schedule in 1962. It became a World Golf Championship event in 2007, and then the PGA Tour struggled to find a title sponsor when President Donald Trump bought the resort.

It moved away from Trump Doral to Mexico City after 2016, prompting Trump — the presumed Republican nominee at the time — to say, “I hope they have kidnapping insurance.”

The famed “Blue Monster” at Trump Doral then became a site for Saudi-funded LIV Golf each of the past four years. Miami is not part of the LIV schedule for 2026, although his Trump National outside Washington will be used.

The spring stretch isn’t the only busy part of the schedule.

The PGA Tour season begins a week later on Jan. 8 at Kapalua, giving players a little more time after the holidays to get ready.

That means the WM Phoenix Open, which prefers to end on Super Bowl Sunday, will be Feb. 5-8. The AT&T Pebble Beach moves back a week followed by the Genesis Invitational, both $20 million signature events.

Previously, the Mexico Open was after the West Coast Swing, a week before the start of the Florida Swing. Now the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., will follow two signature events at Pebble Beach and Riviera, and precede two more big events in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship.

The Associated Press contributed to this report