U.S. Treasury Blacklists Two Mexican Cartels as Terrorists

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control announced this week that it had upgraded the designation of both the Juarez Cartel and the Los Viagras Cartel from Drug Trafficking Organizations to Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The redesignation grants American authorities enhanced powers to pursue these groups through financial channels, including the ability to freeze U.S.-based assets and ban American citizens from conducting any business with them.

The Juarez Cartel

The Juarez Cartel operates primarily out of Ciudad Juarez, a border city directly adjacent to El Paso, Texas. The organization is also known by several other names including La Linea, Barrio Azteca, and the Carrillo Fuentez Organization. For decades, the criminal enterprise has dominated drug trafficking and human smuggling operations throughout the region.

During the 1990s, the Juarez Cartel rose to become one of Mexico’s most formidable criminal organizations under Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who earned notoriety for his innovative use of jets and commercial aircraft to transport narcotics to the border. The cartel has engaged in a bitter territorial conflict with the Sinaloa Cartel, a rivalry that turned Ciudad Juarez into what was considered the murder capital of the world between the early 2000s and 2010. The Juarez Cartel currently maintains a tactical alliance with Cartel Jalisco New Generation, which serves as one of its primary narcotics suppliers.

The cartel is connected to the 2019 massacre of nine women and children, all U.S. citizens, from the LeBaron family. As Breitbart News reported, the victims were traveling from Mexico toward the U.S. border when cartel gunmen allegedly mistook them for rival operatives and opened fire. Following the Trump Administration’s designation of six Mexican cartels as terrorist groups, members of the LeBaron family sent letters and campaigned for the Juarez Cartel to receive the same classification.

Los Viagras Cartel

Based in the western state of Michoacan, the Los Viagras Cartel initially presented itself as a self-defense group protecting local communities from predatory drug cartels. This claim, however, was a strategic deception used to seize territory and establish control over regional drug trafficking operations.

Los Viagras maintains a working relationship with Cartel Jalisco New Generation, though it previously held membership in the rival Carteles Unidos coalition. The organization has amassed a disturbing record of atrocities including mass killings, forced disappearances, and the deployment of weaponized drones to drop explosives on rival cartels and Mexican military personnel.

Expanding Counter-Cartel Powers

The Foreign Terrorist Organization designation represents a significant escalation in U.S. government efforts to combat Mexican cartel operations. The classification provides law enforcement and intelligence agencies with broader legal authority to dismantle cartel financial networks and prosecute individuals who provide material support to these criminal enterprises.

With information from Breitbart News