Popular social media platform Tiktok removed the hashtag from search engines after members of the cartel used it to highlight crime and recruited human smugglers.
A Tiktok spokesperson told Fox News Digital that in addition to removing “#CartelTok” from the search engine, the platform also removed “known cartels or gang leaders” who violated the organization's policies.
Many of the videos in question showed smuggling illegal immigrants across the US border by flashing piles of money, gems and gorgeous items used to seduce American and Mexican teens.
The video proves that cartel members are not afraid to boast of illegal operations, and often boasts of the ease with which they can flaunt cash to Tiktok and other apps, and avoid the authorities.
Read the caption of the Tiktok video posted to X, “carteltok is wilddd.”
“Titktok currently has a tendency to be called “cartel toks.” Mexican cartels hire drug mules that were subsequently paid with crypto. It looks like the cartel is fighting back against the Trump administration.”
Smugglers not only targeted to recruit Tiktok, but also used other social media sites such as Snapchat and Instagram.
You then use an encrypted messaging app (usually WhatsApp) to communicate anonymously with cartel members, and tell them where to receive audio or text messages and pick up human payloads.
Representatives from Snapchat, Tiktok and Meta, which own Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, told Fox News Digital that they have a policy to crack down on such content and remove such content when it appears on the platform.
In August, 22 people were charged in Arizona after 22 allegedly recruited truck drivers using cash snapchat posts that attracted illegal immigrant smuggling. Many of the posts that the driver claims can earn a large sum of money without the risk of being arrested.
In September, an Arizona man was sentenced to 71 months in prison for transporting hundreds of illegal immigrants, and investigators found a Snapchat post that gloated people into overcrowded vehicles in an unsafe condition. He also used minors to promote certain smuggling operations.
According to the Arizona U.S. District Attorney's Office, a conviction for conspiring to transport illegal aliens for their benefit will result in a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $250,000.
Hector Garza, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News Digital that these videos about Tiktok and other social media outlets are not new, but he feels that the Trump administration is taking the videos seriously and is actively working to secure borders.
“Our intelligence reporting community within the Border Patrol and other agencies has always been tracking these types of activities on social media. Now we know we're back in the Biden administration and tracking many different caravans that have come to the US.
“We have President Trump now. He makes it pretty clear that he is serious about making America first, protecting our country and protecting our borders. So I'm sure President Trump actually has some eye on this Tiktok situation.
Garza, an active Border Patrol agent with 25 years of service, said he has heard that “Cartel Tok” had been withdrawn. He said Tiktok and other social media sites could continue to crack down on these criminals and prevent them from posting videos.
“I think their next step is that unless there is serious reforms to Tiktok and how they operate within the US, they will continue to do what they are doing,” Garza said.
“Cartel Tok is not the only channel that has promoted it and talked about all these cartel activities. There are many pages we knew about, from trafficking children to smuggling humans, and nothing to promote other illegal activities that they are doing at the border,” he continued.
Garza added that another problem is that there are imitators who want to mimic what these cartels are posting.
“The problem with these tiktok videos and these social media channels that promote human smuggling, child trafficking and human trafficking is that other imitators will come out of this situation, and now we are proud to be involved in illegal activities.
Thanks to the Trump administration's border crackdown, Garza said it's “very clear” that Trump and his team are paying attention to these social media sites.
“President Trump feels that President Trump will bring some positive changes regarding Tiktok in case a contract is reached between the US Tiktok, but we know that these cartels continue to this day to use social media.
“And definitely I hope President Trump is very clear to Tiktok that these types of channels must be withdrawn.
In February, the Trump administration designated several gangs and cartels, including the TDA, MS-13 and the Sinaloa Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).
The eight groups are made up of TDAs. Also known as the MARA SALVATRUCHA, MS-13. Sinaloa Cartel. Jalisco's new generation cartel. United Cartel; Northeast Cartel; Gulf Cartel; and La Nueva Familia Michoacana, or LNFM.
The move comes after Trump signed an executive order after he ordered the State Department and other executives to designate cartels and other criminal groups as FTOs on his first day in office.
The order said these groups “present an extraordinary and extraordinary threat to the US national security, foreign policy and the economy,” evoking the International Emergency Economic Force Act (IEEP) and declaring a national emergency “to address these threats.”
In 2023, Customs and Border Patrol encountered 2,475,669 people attempting to enter the country along the southwest border.
However, it is unknown how many people have used social media by immigrants or their smugglers on the way.
Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
