‘Narco Rapper’ with 5M+ Followers Has Royalties SANCTIONED by Trump Administration

President Trump isn’t playing around when it comes to hitting the cartels south of the border in every way possible, particularly when it comes to their cash flow.

Ricardo Hernandez Medrano just found that out the hard way.

The President also just proved he’s not afraid of taking action against the so-called “Narco” musicians who glorify the cartels in their music.

Those musicians, in many cases, don’t just sing about the cartel lifestyle.

They often DIRECTLY SUPPORT cartel operations by acting as money-laundering gateways.

That’s what Medrano, better known to his 5+ Million social media followers as “El Makabelico”, is accused of doing by the Trump Administration.

And Trump’s Department of the Treasury just levelled sanctions targeting all his assets, including his streaming royalties for allegedly funding Mexican drug lords with a large portion of his musical profits.

He is pictured here alongside some of the higher-ranking members of the “CDN Narcoterrorism Network” on the Treasury Department’s website:

The Treasury Department went after Medrano specifically because of the large profits from his royalties being funneled directly to the Cartel del Noreste.

But he wasn’t the only one hit with sanctions today.

As several high-ranking CDN members can now attest, President Trump’s administration is getting into the nitty gritty when it comes to sidelining the power players who lead the cartels, as reported by the New York Post:

The US Treasury sanctioned senior members of a vicious Mexican drug cartel Wednesday for trafficking fentanyl into the US — as well as a notorious rapper thought to be providing up to half of his royalties to the gangsters.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the crippling penalties for Cartel del Noreste — among the most violent drug runners in Mexico, a dangerous presence on both sides of the border near Laredo, Texas, and a US-designated foreign terror organization.

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Rapper Ricardo Hernandez Medrano — who goes by the stage names “El Makabelico” and “Comando Exclusivo” — was hit with sanctions as an associate of the cartel after having forked over 50% of his streaming cash, believed to be thousands of dollars, to fund trafficking, human smuggling and extortion.

Medrano boasts nearly 2.8 million subscribers on YouTube, along with 1.3 million followers on TikTok and 1 million followers on Instagram.

Three other top Cartel del Noreste members — Abdon Federico Rodriguez Garcia, Antonio Romero Sanchez and Francisco Daniel Esqueda Nieto — were also sanctioned. (Emphasis added.)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly announced the targeting of Medrano alongside the other Mexico-based cartel members hit with sanctions today.

But he very pointedly singled out Medrano in particular, highlighting the degree to which the rapper’s profits wound up in cartel hands:

Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three high-ranking members of the Mexico-based terrorist organization Cartel del Noreste (CDN), along with narco-rapper El Makabelico.

The narco-rapper’s concerts and events are used to launder money on behalf of CDN,… https://t.co/d9Fl6gaY6Z

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 6, 2025

Here’s the full text of Bessent’s post on X:

Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three high-ranking members of the Mexico-based terrorist organization Cartel del Noreste (CDN), along with narco-rapper El Makabelico.

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The narco-rapper’s concerts and events are used to launder money on behalf of CDN, and 50% of his royalties from streaming platforms go directly to the group.

The sanctioning of “alternative revenue streams” like that coming from Narco musicians that fund the cartels may seem like a drop in the bucket.

But as the noose tightens on the operational and trafficking side of the cartels’ business, the secondary flow of cash coming from people like Medrano become critical to keeping their operations afloat.

In other words, President Trump has been tightening the noose on the cartels at EVERY end!  And it’s starting to hurt!

But the sanctions against Medrano will impact even more than his royalties.

Every asset he owns, including properties in the US and business dealings, will be frozen by the US government until the sanctions are lifted.

And he isn’t the first musical artist to feel the effects of President Trump’s actions against the cartels and those closely associated with them, according to this report from CBS News:

“CDN depends on these alternative revenue streams and money laundering methods to boost their criminal enterprise, diversifying their income beyond criminal activity like drug trafficking, human smuggling, and extortion,” wrote the Treasury Department in a news release.

The sanctions would block the rapper’s properties in the U.S. and freeze financial transactions with any businesses owned by those sanctioned, and threaten secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions that do business with them.

Hernández, whose stage name is a play on words relating to cartels, performs his songs wearing a black ski mask and often sings songs related to the criminal groups, making reference to street life, cartel lifestyles and the realities faced in cartel-dominated areas.

In recent months, the Trump administration has revoked the visas of a slew of artists related to the genre. In May, the famous northern Mexican band Grupo Firme, which has taken steps to distance itself from the cartel-centric themes of the genre, announced it would have to cancel an upcoming show in California because its visas were suspended.

In April, the administration said it was revoking the visas of the band Alegres de Barranco after they flashed the face of a cartel boss behind them at a concert, prompting a controversy and even criminal investigations in Mexico. In June, the band released an anti-narco song in a bid to clear its name.

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As referenced in that article, the group “Alegres de Barranco” had to CHANGE THEIR TUNE (I’ll see myself out…) after throwing up a huge image of a cartel boss at a concert.

Here’s the moment that ultimately got their visas revoked by the Trump Administration back in April:

Members of Mexican band that shared artwork ‘glorifying’ drug cartel boss have their US visas revoked https://t.co/Fs4m8rQOqy pic.twitter.com/RXjiPEn7ov

— New York Post (@nypost) April 2, 2025

While Medrano is likely wringing his hands at this moment over his loss of income…

The other three targeted by today’s sanctions may be a little more worried.

Medrano funneled money to the cartel like a good peasant, but those other three are more than just funding peons in the Cartel del Noreste.

All three were named by the Trump Administration as high-ranking leaders intimately involved in the seriously violent criminal enterprises of the cartel.

Here’s a breakdown on those three — Rodriquez, Romero, and Esqueda — as detailed on the Treasury Department’s website:

Abdon Federico Rodriguez Garcia (Rodriguez) is the second-in-command of CDN. Rodriguez, also known as “Cucho,” is involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, fuel theft, and extortion on behalf of the organization. Rodriguez is also responsible for ordering executions on behalf of CDN. Rodriguez was previously arrested in 2013 with the infamous CDN leader Miguel Trevino Morales, also known as “Z-40,” and has been a member of CDN since the group operated as Los Zetas.

Antonio Romero Sanchez (Romero) is a high-ranking member of CDN and has led operations in Piedras Negras, Coahuila and Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas on behalf of the organization. Romero, also known as “Romeo,” is a former police officer from Tamaulipas and a violent fugitive. Romero has been linked to numerous executions and beheadings as well as the 2025 attempted assassination of a Nuevo Laredo government official.

Francisco Daniel Esqueda Nieto (Esqueda), more commonly known as Franky Esqueda, took over CDN’s tactical operations in Nuevo Laredo after the 2025 arrest of CDN leader Gonzalez. Esqueda, also known as “Franky de la Joya,” has been involved in the cartel’s operations since they operated as Los Zetas. Esqueda is responsible for assaulting a member of Mexico’s army—the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA)—and commanding an attack on a SEDENA helicopter during the arrest of CDN leader Gonzalez.

No shots were fired, and no one was taken into custody as a result of today’s onslaught from the Department of the Treasury against the CDN network.

But if I’m a Mexican gangsta rapper, a “Narco musician”, or anyone else for that matter who has made it common practice to glorify the violent criminals designated as foreign terrorists by the Trump Administration…

There’s a good chance I’m reconsidering that habit going forward after today.

And if, let’s say, I had been in the even-more-dangerous habit of funding those terrorists with my day job…

I’m probably not going to be sleeping all that good tonight, wondering if my hard earned greenbacks are about to be airlifted from my bank account during la noche.

Without a bullet fired, the Trump Administration just put a stranglehold on far more income streams than just that single cash pipeline Medrano was supplying to the cartels.

Narco terrorists, like most bad guys, operate on FEAR.  What’s better than giving the BAD GUYS something to fear for a change?

Back in the day… we called that “Winning”.