Tag: cartels

Mexican and Colombian Cartels Sending Members to Ukraine To Learn To Operate Attack Drones, Changing Drug War Tactics Forever

It’s a clear and present danger to the US.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is generating bad repercussions for Europe and the outside world, such as an energy crisis, military escalations, and other problematic developments.

To the US, there’s a new, dangerous reality that may be about to bring a whole new level of danger, as the Latin American cartels are sending their operatives to Ukraine to be trained in drone warfare.

These criminals are attending the Kill House Academy, a ‘Top Gun school for the drone-warfare era’, according to the British media, a place that trains some of Kiev regime’s best UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) pilots.

It’s actually easy for a cartel member to blend in with the thousands of new Latin American recruits.

The Telegraph reported:

“Among the more promising recent recruits [at the Kill House Academy] was a pilot with the callsign Aguila 7 (Eagle 7) – a former special forces soldier from Mexico, enlisted with Ukraine’s International Legion. But while he excelled at the course, it seemed he had foes other than Russian soldiers in his sights. Eagle 7 was in fact a foot soldier in Mexico’s feared Los Zetas drug cartel and had been sent there to learn drone skills for use in drug wars back home, according to reports.”

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Pete Hegseth Launches Counter-Narcotics Task Force Under President Trump’s Order to Destroy Cartels

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that a counter-narcotics task force in the Caribbean will be launched under an order from President Trump.

Hegseth explained that the intention of the task force was to destroy the cartels and keep the United States safe from drugs.

The task force will be in SOUTHCOM, which is in the Caribbean and Latin America geographical locations.

Fox News Reported:

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday announced that the Department of War (DOW) is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the Caribbean Sea.

Hegseth said the task force’s aim would be to “crush the cartels, stop the poison and keep America safe. The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.”

The task force is launching at the direction of President Donald Trump, he said, in the SOUTHCOM area, which covers the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Trump administration has aggressively targeted drug boats that were intended to traffic drugs into the United States. Numerous drug boats have been blown up to stop the flow of drugs into our country.

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Senate Votes Down Resolution Seeking to Halt Trump’s Use of Military Force Against Cartel Boats

The U.S. Senate has voted against legislation seeking to direct the withdrawal of the U.S. military from hostilities that have not been authorized by Congress.

The proposal was a direct challenge to President Donald Trump’s decision as commander in chief to use military force against drug cartels operating in waters around the United States.

The 48-51 vote on Wednesday was mostly split along party lines, although Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Maine) crossed the floor to support the Democrat-led resolution, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) crossed the floor to join the majority of Republicans to reject it.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) sponsored the measure, which was filed under the War Powers Act of 1973.

The resolution bill sought to direct the removal of the United States military from hostilities that Congress has not authorized. The bill came in response to U.S. military hits on four vessels linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. U.S. officials said the ships were involved in smuggling drugs into the United States. At least 21 people have been killed in these military operations.

The resolution said that drug trafficking could not be considered an armed attack or an imminent threat justifying military action, and that designating an organization as a foreign terrorist group did not authorize such use of force. It noted the United States retains the right to act in self-defense against an armed attack.

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Violent drug gang threatens US tourists and Kash Patel in terrifying message after raids and weapons seizures

Violent cartel members have threatened US tourists in Mexico in an effort to send a warning to FBI Director Kash Patel as the administration continues to crack down on drug and weapons trades.

Extraordinary banners have been erected in Baja California responding to recent raids and weapons seizures conducted by the FBI.

The messages claim that starting Sunday, cartel gunmen from the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel will begin targeting US citizens who are in Mexico with violence.

In particular, tourists and Americans living in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose have been warned they will be targeted.

Written in Spanish, the warnings state: ‘You will be the ones to blame. We’ll show how we’ll make this war starting 5/10/2025 on all Americans residing in areas where we have a presence… especially those living in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.

‘We are the ones who rule here and we’ll demonstrate what we are capable of if you don’t stop arresting our people and decommissioning our loads and weapons.’

Cartels are known to hang ‘narco banners’ from bridges and overpasses in an effort to deliver a message to governments or their rivals.

But Christian Agúndez Gómez, mayor of San Jose del Cabo maintained there is no credible proof of the existence of the banners.

‘It’s not true,’ he said. ‘We have investigated the information and determined the banners were never placed.’

He added: ‘There are necessary investigations that are still ongoing. We will monitor results issued by the attorney general.

‘Unfortunately, social media sometimes plays a role against people’s peace of mind, that’s why it’s important to verify the information with official sources before distributing it.’ 

Local news sources railed against the mayor’s comments, maintaining they had received images of the banners from multiple sources, according to Border Report. 

The banners were specifically addressed to Patel and Terry Cole, director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Mexico’s attorney general in Baja California Sur said there were instances in which banners had been falsely placed to spread fear in the community, despite having no known gang or cartel links.

The Trump administration earlier this month declared the United States is in an ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels amid recent strikes on boats in the Carribean trying to cross into US waters.

‘The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,’ a memo seen by AP states.

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U.S. helps capture baby trafficking cartel leader ‘La Diabla’

U.S. officials said they helped arrest a Mexican cartel ringleader known as “La Diabla,” who was accused of running a baby trafficking and organ-harvesting scheme that left pregnant women dead and their newborns sold off for big bucks.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Wednesday that authorities arrested Martha Alicia Mendez Aguilar, a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, during a joint operation with Mexican police earlier this month in Juarez, Mexico.

The ODNI said La Diabla lured pregnant, often impoverished women to remote locations before forcing them to go through with the illegal cesarean sections.

The infant would fetch roughly $13,500 on the black market, officials said, while the mother, who was usually killed during the procedure, had her organs removed to be sold as well.

“This is one example of what terrorist cartels will do to diversify their revenue streams and finance operations,” said Joe Kent, the ODNI’s director of its National Counterterrorism Center.

He said U.S. intelligence tracked down La Diabla and helped Mexican and American authorities carry out the Sept. 2 arrest of the ringleader.

“I am proud of our team’s ability to work with our forward deployed U.S. partners and Mexican law enforcement to stop these horrific acts,” Mr. Kent said. “NCTC remains committed to disrupting all aspects of terrorist cartels and their operations. And in this case, the lives of innocent women and children depended on it.”

Ms. Mendez Aguilar’s arrest was aided by President Trump’s designation of Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

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New war power bill gives Trump sweeping authority to attack dozens of nations: Report

Legislation has been drafted that would give US President Donald Trump unchecked power to wage war against drug cartels as well as any nation he says has harbored or aided them, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 23 September, citing people familiar with the matter.

If passed, the legislation would allow the US president to deem as “terrorists” any groups that have trafficked in drugs or financed drug-related enterprises. The president would then have the authorization to use military force against such groups and any governments allegedly harboring them.

The US military carried out attacks this month on three boats that Trump claims were smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea. The strikes killed 17 people and were widely criticized as illegal. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the strikes “unlawful extrajudicial killings.”

NYT notes that the draft legislation appears to be modeled on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Congress granted former US president George W. Bush to launch the so-called “War on Terror” after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

While theoretically passed to allow the US to target Al-Qaeda and its hosts in Afghanistan, the broad nature of the AUMF allowed the Bush, Obama, and first Trump administrations to invade Iraq and to target Islamic militant groups in Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen many times over a period stretching decades.

Neither the AUMF nor the new draft legislation being considered names a specific enemy. The president is therefore empowered to attack any group, anywhere, in an open-ended war.

NYT stated that this raises the question of whether Congress was giving Trump the “authority to wage a regime change war in Venezuela.”

In addition to striking the three boats, Trump has ordered additional US warplanes and naval ships to the Caribbean, while also accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug cartel.

In July, Trump signed a still-secret order directing the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American criminal gangs and drug cartels, NYT added.

The Institute for Responsible Statecraft stated that the legislation could be used to justify US military intervention in at least 60 countries.

In comments given to NYT, Harvard Professor Jack Goldsmith called the draft legislation “insanely broad,” essentially “an open-ended war authorization against an untold number of countries, organizations, and persons that the president could deem within its scope.”

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Former Mexican President’s Sons Reportedly Tied to Cartel Fuel Investigations

A new controversy spread in Mexico as two sons of the country’s former President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) are allegedly being tied to a large-scale cartel-connected fuel theft and smuggling network.

The revelations came to light this week as the news outlet Latinus first reported on a series of “Amparos,” or legal protections similar to an injunction that had been filed on behalf of Andres Manuel “Andy” and Roberto “Bobby” Lopez Beltran, the two oldest sons of AMLO. The amparos were meant to protect the two brothers against arrest, even though it is not publicly known if they are under any investigations.

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Trump Calls His Drone Strike on an Alleged Drug Boat ‘Self-Defense.’ It Looks More Like Murder.

Last week, President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike that sank a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. Trump described the targets as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua who were “at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.” Although the men could have been intercepted and arrested, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, the president decided their summary execution was appropriate as a deterrent to drug trafficking.

On Wednesday, The New York Times, citing unnamed “American officials familiar with the matter,” reported that the boat “appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it.” That detail further complicates the already dubious legal and moral rationales for this unprecedented use of the U.S. military to kill criminal suspects.

The attack “crossed a fundamental line the Department of Defense has been resolutely committed to upholding for many decades—namely, that (except in rare and extreme circumstances not present here) the military must not use lethal force against civilians, even if they are alleged, or even known, to be violating the law,” Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman notes in a Just Security essay. Lederman adds that the September 2 drone strike “appears to have violated” the executive order prohibiting assassination and arguably qualifies as murder under federal law and the Uniform Code of Criminal Justice.

New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department lawyer, agrees. “It’s difficult to imagine how any lawyers inside the Pentagon could have arrived at a conclusion that this was legal,” he told the Times last week, “rather than the very definition of murder under international law rules that the Defense Department has long accepted.”

As Trump told it, the attack was justified because Tren de Aragua is “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of [Venezuelan President] Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.” He said the strike was meant to “serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”

Drug cartels have “wrought devastating consequences on American communities for decades, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of United States citizens each year and threatening our national security and foreign policy interests both at home and abroad,” Trump said in a September 4 letter to Congress. “We have now reached a critical point where we must meet this threat to our citizens and our most vital national interests with United States military force in self-defense.”

U.S. forces therefore “struck a vessel” that “was assessed to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and to be engaged in illicit drug trafficking activities,” Trump explained. “I directed these actions consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct United States foreign relations.”

Trump says the men whose deaths he ordered were “assessed” to be affiliated with Tren de Aragua. They also were “assessed” to be engaged in drug trafficking. Without knowing the basis for those assessments, we cannot say how accurate they were. Last week, Trump joked about the potential for deadly errors: “I think anybody that saw that is going to say, ‘I’ll take a pass.’ I don’t even know about fishermen. They may say, ‘I’m not getting on the boat. I’m not going to take a chance.'” Conveniently for Trump, summary execution avoids any need to present evidence, let alone meet the requirements of due process.

“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vice President J.D. Vance declared in an X post on Saturday. When a commenter observed that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime,” Vance replied, “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”

That was too much for Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.). “Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?” Paul wondered. “Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

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Mexican cartel was taught drone warfare in Ukraine – media

A powerful Mexican drug cartel has acquired advanced drone warfare skills in Ukraine, the Milenio newspaper reported on Monday.

Moscow has long argued that the Ukraine conflict fuels global instability by spreading weapons and fostering reckless behavior by Kiev in pursuit of its war aims. Foreign fighters have become a key part of Ukraine’s military strategy as authorities face resistance to conscription at home.

Milenio examined propaganda materials released by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a major criminal group based in western Mexico, including footage showing a drone-armed hit squad operating with apparent military discipline and tactical expertise. Experts cited by the paper said the group’s methods and armaments bore similarities to battlefield practices in the Ukraine conflict.

Mexican intelligence believes CJNG members received training in drone and urban warfare tactics in Ukraine, sources in the Jalisco state government told Milenio.

The report highlighted the cartel’s use of specific equipment, including DJI Matrice 300 RTK drones commonly employed in the Ukraine conflict. The quadcopter aircraft, marketed for civilian use, can carry payloads of up to 3kg, operate at night, and fly long distances.

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Fentanyl Financiers: Treasury Links Mexican Banks and Chinese Networks to Cartel Money Laundering

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is stepping up its efforts to identify the ways that drug cartels move their funds. Most recently, Treasury officials identified the presence of Chinese money laundering networks that are working with Mexican drug cartels and other criminal entities to move large sums of cash.

In a series of notices from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, authorities warned financial institutions about the methods that criminal organizations are using to launder money. According to FinCEN, investigators reviewed 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act reports from 2020 to 2024, identifying $312 billion in suspicious transactions tied to Chinese money laundering networks.

Of significant concern to FinCEN is the apparent ties between Mexican drug cartels and Chinese money laundering groups. The report comes just weeks after FinCEN and the U.S. Treasury sanctioned two Mexican banks and one brokerage firm that they alleged had been laundering money for various drug cartels and had also been helping funnel money into China to pay for fentanyl precursors, Breitbart Texas reported at the time.

The ties between drug cartels and Chinese groups are fueled in part by currency laws in both Mexico and China, which limit the amount of U.S. dollars that can be deposited and moved in Mexico, as well as China’s control of international currency within its country. Treasury officials claim that money laundering groups from China buy U.S. dollars from drug cartels and then sell them further ahead to Chinese individuals or businesses who are trying to evade China’s cash control laws.

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