U.S. Intensifies Actions Against Latin American Cartels

The U.S. is officially done playing games with drug cartels.

President Donald Trump’s administration just slapped the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” label on some notorious Latin American cartels.

And it’s about time!

Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi is making sure the Justice Department has the right ammo, ordering the right blueprint for indictments and search warrants.

Play time is over with this administration.

The message is clear: If you’re running a cartel, you will bed treated you like a terrorist.

Which means the military can pull out the big guns!

JUST IN 🔴

AP: Trump administration designates 8 Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. pic.twitter.com/xFtntUyiEM

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) February 19, 2025

Politico reports:

The U.S. State Department is moving to designate Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa Cartel and six other Latin American drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, according to an unpublished notice in the Federal Register posted Wednesday.

The notice, which was issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and set to be officially published Thursday, suggests these groups have threatened the country’s defense, international relations or economic interests.

Many of these cartels — including Tren de Aragua and Sinaloa — have been engines for transnational drug trade that inundated some swaths of the country with illicit fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs. Some of these groups, like the Cartel del Golfo, have also been responsible for migrant smuggling, which the Trump administration has aimed to clamp down on.

This designation allows the U.S. to impose financial sanctions on these groups and people connected to them, and cooperate with allies to cull cartels. It also allows the U.S. to declare members of these groups as “inadmissible” to the country and ineligible for immigration benefits.

It’s not immediately clear how far these sanctions might go — or who they may target. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The move follows President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to crack down on cartels. On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order that established a pipeline for cartels and other international groups that “constitute[d] a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime” to be labeled as global terrorists.

These moves could expose countries like El Salvador — which the U.S. aims to collaborate with on countermigration, but have also been accused of having dealings with gangs — to terror charges and restrict their cooperation with the U.S.

#BREAKING @StateDept @SecRubio designates the following cartels/gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations:

•Tren de Aragua
•Mara Salvatrucha
•Cartel de Sinaloa
•Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion
•Carteles Unidos
•Cartel del Noreste
•Cartel del Golfo
•La Nueva Familia… pic.twitter.com/EyyBMiE9T4

— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) February 19, 2025

What does it mean to label them terrorist?

Here’s Rubio with the answer:

In his confirmation hearing as the new Sec. of State, Marco Rubio described drug cartels in Mexico as “terrorists organizations”.

We all know what that means: they want our lithium, our oil & our guacamole.

We had a war in drugs in 2008: 250,000 Mexicans disappeared. pic.twitter.com/rsxOOGIekW

— Laura Gerundio (@LauraGerundio) January 16, 2025