U.S. Treasury Designates Two More Mexican Cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations

The U.S. Treasury Department has officially designated two additional Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. With this action, the total number of cartels recognized as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. reaches eight.

This week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that the Juarez Cartel and Los Biagras Cartel will be reclassified from drug trafficking organizations to foreign terrorist organizations. This designation allows authorities to employ new economic measures against the groups, including the ability to freeze their assets in the U.S. and prohibit American citizens from engaging in business with them.

The Juarez Cartel, also called La Linea, Barrio Azteca, or the Carrillo Fuentes organization, operates out of Ciudad Juarez, which is right next to El Paso, Texas. This group has a lengthy history of dominating both the drug trade and human smuggling in the area. In the 1990s, under the leadership of the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Juarez Cartel grew to be one of the most powerful in Mexico, known for using jets to smuggle drugs across the border. Over the years, it became embroiled in fierce rivalries with the Sinaloa cartel, turning Ciudad Juárez into a murder hotbed from the early 2000s until 2010. Currently, the Juarez Cartel has formed a tactical alliance with the Cartel Jalisco New Generation, a significant supplier of drugs.

This cartel has been linked to the horrific murders of nine U.S. citizens—women and children—back in 2019. Reports indicated that members of the LeBaron family were mistakenly targeted by cartel gunmen while traveling from Mexico to the U.S. border. Following the Trump administration’s designation of six Mexican cartels as terrorist groups, family members appealed for the Juarez Cartel to receive the same classification.

Meanwhile, the Los Biagras Cartel hails from the western state of Michoacán. Initially, it presented itself as a self-defense group aiming to protect communities from predatory cartels. However, this facade allowed Los Biagras to expand its territory and take control of the regional drug trade. They currently have a similar alliance with the Cartel Jalisco New Generation and were formerly associated with Cartel Unidos. The gang’s reputation is marked by incidents of mass murder, enforced disappearances, and even the use of drones to target rivals and the Mexican military.