Mexico City, Oct 1 (IANS/EFE): Mexico and the US swapped 27 convicts to have them continue serving their sentences in their own countries, as a result of bilateral cooperation on the execution of prison sentences, said authorities.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said in a communique that, on an unspecified date, four American convicts were handed over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, and 23 Mexican prisoners were sent back to their homeland with the aid of Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat and Foreign Relations Secretariat.

He said the American convicts were received at El Paso International Airport in Texas to have them continued serving in US jails the sentences handed down by Mexican courts.

The Americans who were flown back to the US had been tried in Mexico for crimes against public health and for aggravated kidnapping and qualified homicide.

On their part, personnel of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons delivered to agents of Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat, in the same airport, 23 Mexican convicts who were taken back to their own country to serve the remainder of their sentences.

"The governments of Mexico and the United States of America have redoubled their efforts to widen cooperation in the execution of criminal sentences, thanks to the close collaboration between the two," the communique said.