DOJ’s First Terrorism Designation Hits Mexican Cartel

The Justice Department just charged Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez.

Her crime?

Supplying grenades to CJNG (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación).

It’s the first use of the new terrorism designation against a cartel member.

President Trump’s February order finally labeled CJNG and seven other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

This indictment marks a major shift in how cartel violence is prosecuted.

Play time is over.

CBS News reports:

The U.S. Department of Justice charged a Mexican cartel member Friday, using a new terrorism designation for the first time – providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment in the Western District of Texas, alleging Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez, 39, provided grenades to Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

President Trump, in February, signed an executive order designating CJNG and seven other cartels: Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos as foreign terrorist organizations.

Mr. Trump said cartels and other transnational organizations “threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” House and Senate Democrats urged top Trump administration officials to unlock additional legal tools that would allow the administration to disrupt the cartels’ financial networks and impose harsher penalties on entities that provide material support to them.

Federal law makes it a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and other fines to provide material support to cartels. The indictment filed against Navarro-Sanchez alleges that the Mexican national, in addition to conspiring to provide grenades to the cartel she also trafficked firearms and humans, smuggled bulk cash, and trafficked drugs on its behalf.

🇺🇸 🇲🇽 | U.S. and Mexican forces are teaming up by air, land, and sea.
The war on cartels is escalating like never before.
Border security just went from talk to action. pic.twitter.com/Uf2fqlCBbT

— Texanon𝕏™ (@TexanonX) May 15, 2025

The era of these cartels ruling is ending. From the Deep State cartel, to the Big Pharma cartel to Mexico’s drug cartel.

Obama and the Biden aren’t in charge anymore.

America needs to destroy the biggest terrorist cells, which are the Mexican cartels that control everything south of the border…

I pray it's Trump's next move. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/53TzQDKOiW

— Thick Shelled Egg 🥚 (@ThickShelledEgg) May 16, 2025