Tag: cartels

Arizona Voters Will Decide on Designating Drug Cartels Terrorist Organizations

Arizona voters will decide in November on whether or not to designate drug cartels operating at the U.S. Southern border with Mexico as terrorists.

The vote will come after the Arizona state senate failed to pass a measure last year due to a slim Republican majority, per The Hill.

“Arizona is on the frontlines of a war that Washington ignored until President Trump took action. This resolution gives the Trump Administration another tool to defend our state, uphold the rule of law, and protect innocent lives,” state Rep. Steve Montenegro (R) said in a press release.

The resolution comes after the Trump administration added eight drug cartels to its list of terrorist organizations despite pushback from the Mexican government.

“Groups on the list are subject to financial sanctions, and their members cannot legally enter the United States. It is also illegal to give material support to a foreign terrorist organization,” noted The Hill.

“The Arizona ballot initiative would also direct the state Department of Homeland Security to ‘do everything within its authority to address the threat posed by drug cartels,’” it added.

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FBI Compromised by Cartel Hacker Who Gained Control of Cameras, Multiple Left Dead in Fallout

Unidentified computer hackers associated with the Sinaloa drug cartel were able to garner phone records from the FBI, then used Mexico City surveillance cameras to compromise key informants and witnesses so they could murder them back in 2018, a new report showed.

This information was disclosed to the Justice Department in an Inspector General audit of the FBI’s efforts to “Mitigate the Effects of Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance,” according to Fox News.

The report cited the case against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who used to lead the cartel, but who was extradited to the United States back in 2017. While federal authorities were working the case, they were alerted to the hiring of a hacker “who offered a menu of services related to exploiting mobile phones and other electronic devices.”

The hacker “had observed people going in and out of the United States Embassy in Mexico City and identified ‘people of interest’ for the cartel, including the FBI Assistant Legal Attache (ALA T), and then was able to use the ALA T’s mobile phone number to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data, associated with the ALAT’s phone,” the audit read.

“According to the FBI, the hacker also used Mexico City’s camera system to follow the ALAT through the city and identify people the ALAT met with,” the report continued. “According to the case agent, the cartel used that information to intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses.”

The audit also highlighted how modern technology has “made it easier than ever for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to identify and exploit vulnerabilities created by” data from everyday items like smartphones and personal computers.

Some within the U.S. intel community, including CIA officials, described the threat as being “existential.”

This should send a message to the U.S. that computers have become the new battlefield. And we are still vulnerable in this area.

Even if the federal government expanded funding and continued using all the technology at its disposal, drug cartels can still gain the upper hand.

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Treasury Sanctions 3 Mexican Financial Institutions For Aiding Cartels In Fentanyl Trade; Sheinbaum Denies

Mexican President Sheinbaum has commented on the sanctions, denying any fraud and claiming the Mexican banking system is ‘sound’:

  • *SHEINBAUM: NO EVIDENCE OF MONEY LAUNDERING IN MEXICAN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM SAYS MEXICO ONLY FOUND ADMINISTRATIVE FLAWS IN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICO ASKED US TREASURY MONEY LAUNDERING EVIDENCE
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM SOUND, ACCUSED FIRMS SMALL
  • *MEXICO TRANSFERS TO CHINA COS ‘NOT MONEY LAUNDERING’: SHEINBAUM

Just a coincidence?

As Naveen Athrappully detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) sanctioned three financial institutions based in Mexico for allegedly laundering money for cartels involved in the illegal trade of fentanyl, the Treasury said in a June 25 statement. The institutions are CIBanco S.A., Intercam Banco S.A., and Vector Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V.

CIBanco and Intercam are commercial banks with assets worth more than $7 billion and $4 billion, respectively. Vector is a brokerage company managing almost $11 billion in assets.

FinCEN has determined that the entities launder money in connection with illicit opioid trafficking, and have “collectively played a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” the statement said.

CIBanco facilitated illicit opioid trafficking by Mexican cartels such as Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Beltran-Leyva Cartel, and Gulf Cartel. Intercam was linked to CJNG, and Vector with the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel, said the statement.

FinCEN said that between 2021 and 2024, CIBanco processed more than $2.1 million in payments from Mexico-based companies to entities in China that shipped precursor chemicals to Mexico. Intercam processed over $1.5 million during the same period.

As for Vector, the institution processed more than $1 million between 2018 and 2023.

The sanctions prohibit financial institutions in the United States from engaging in the transmission of funds from or to CIBanco, Intercam, or Vector. The prohibition also applies to any account or convertible virtual currency address administered by the three institutions.

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Silvia Delgado, former attorney for “El Chapo,” elected as Judge in Chihuahua; links to drug trafficking expose flaws in legitimacy of New Judicial System promoted by Morena.


On June 1, 2025, Mexico held its first simultaneous elections for over 2,600 judicial positions, including seats in the Supreme Court, as part of the Morena government’s reform aimed at boosting transparency and accountability within the judicial branch.

However, participation was alarmingly low: just 11% in local elections and 13% in the federal race.

This low level of citizen engagement has sparked questions about the legitimacy and representativeness of the new judges.

Amid this context, the election of Silvia Rocío Delgado García as a criminal court judge in the Bravos Judicial District of Chihuahua has unleashed a storm of criticism and concern across Mexico.

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To Defeat Drug Cartels, Corrupt Bankers Must Be Jailed

“There are far more ‘bad apples’ in the banking sales industry, in the legal profession, in the financial service provider industry and in the international business community than the world can comprehend.” – Robert Mazur

Drug cartels are menacing on two levels: they mass produce and sell extremely addictive drugs literally by the ton, and they leverage highly effective global money laundering systems to plow their illegal profits into mainstream commerce. Too often, corrupt bankers are actively or passively complicit. If we can stop the bankers, we throw a huge wrench into the cartels’ ability to function.

For decades, law enforcement has valiantly fought drug smugglers but to little avail. Consider this 2024 statement from the U.S. Treasury:

During the assessment period, Clan del Golfo (CDG), a Colombia-based TCO and paramilitary organization, remained a significant producer and trafficker of cocaine destined for U.S. drug markets and earned a significant amount of proceeds in U.S. dollars. According to the DOJ, CDG is one of the most violent and powerful criminal organizations in Colombia, and it is one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the world.

Mostly, America’s fight against the cartels has been done using a tactical troops on the ground approach that sends some of the most vicious cutthroat criminals to prison. However, the bankers who knowingly handle the cartels’ money rarely pay a price. And it’s a lot of money: “The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates between 2 per cent and 5 per cent of global GDP—up to $2 trillion—is laundered every year.” According to a DEA agent, the cartels are “undermining [America’s] financial stability.”

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The $13 Billion Secret: How Obama’s DACA and Biden’s Open Borders Fund Cartels and Human Trafficking

Bottom Line Up Front: Immigration policies that create pathways to legalization, including programs like DACA, inadvertently signal that illegal entry can lead to permanent status, fueling a massive criminal enterprise that generates billions for cartels while subjecting migrants to exploitation and trafficking.

The data reveals that the U.S.-Mexico border has been transformed into a cartel-controlled profit center. Cartels and “coyotes” are reportedly earning around $13 billion a year by smuggling migrants across the United States/Mexico border, an amount that has soared from the 2018 number of just $500 million, representing a 2,500% increase in just five years.

This explosive growth coincides with Biden-era open border policies, expanded asylum processes and legalization programs that signal potential pathways to permanent status. 80 percent of unlawful border-crossers hire smugglers, according to a 2023 report by the Department of Homeland Security, demonstrating how thoroughly criminal organizations have monetized illegal immigration.

Border Patrol sector chiefs confirm unprecedented criminal control over migration routes. ‘Now nobody crosses without paying the cartels,’ testified Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin. Those who try to bypass the criminal networks face severe consequences, including beatings.

The financial incentives driving this criminal enterprise are enormous. Smuggling fees range from $2,000 to $40,000, with cartels taking a substantial cut at every stage. For most migrants, this represents years of savings, an investment they’d only make if they believed there was a real chance of staying in the U.S. If they thought they would be turned away at the border, jailed, or deported upon capture, they wouldn’t take the risk.

Many migrants go into debt or even enter into forms of indentured servitude to the cartels to cover the cost of being trafficked. This often results in exploitation, forced prostitution, and other abuses. It also fuels the ranks of street-level criminals distributing drugs for cartel-connected gangs inside the United States.

The promise of potential legalization has fueled a massive human trafficking pipeline. Smuggling migrants has become one of the top revenue streams, alongside drugs and extortion, for criminal organizations like Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels. Children are especially vulnerable in this system. One study estimates that nearly 60% of unaccompanied minors crossing the border are intercepted by cartels and forced into child pornography or drug trafficking.

The scale is staggering: during the Biden era (2021–2024), encounters of unaccompanied children at the U.S. border surged to 546,255. Trafficking children is not only profitable for the cartels, it is also incentivized by U.S. policies like DACA, which shield minors from deportation. These policies contribute to the liberal narrative that “families are being torn apart” when illegal immigrant parents are deported but choose to leave their U.S.-born “anchor babies” or DACA-protected children behind.

According to Pew Research (2024), roughly 4.4 million U.S.-born children under 18 live with an illegal immigrant parent. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program protects many who entered the country illegally as minors, offering legal protections and work authorization. Even the program’s name, “Dreamers”, sends a message of opportunity, reinforcing the belief that entering the U.S. illegally with children can eventually lead to legal status. As of March 31, 2024, there were over half a million active DACA recipients in the country.

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Supreme Court: US Gun Makers Not Liable For Cartel Violence

In a unanimous blow to gun control advocacy groups, the Supreme Court shut down Mexico’s $10 billion claim targeting U.S. gun makers in a cross-border lawsuit.

Mexico originally filed the suit in 2021, arguing that U.S. gun companies were responsible for the weapons that fueled cartel violence. Mexico received support in its lawsuit from American gun control advocacy groups such as Everytown and March for our Lives Action Fund.

The Supreme Court ruling, written by Justice Elena Kagan, found that the manufacturer’s alleged failure to exercise “reasonable care” does not meet the standard necessary to be found liable for “aiding and abetting” the sale of illegal firearms in Mexico.

Mexico had asked the court for $10 billion in damages and additional court-imposed injunctive relief in the form of restrictions on manufacturers. According to a lawyer who spoke to RCP, siding with Mexico on the injunctive relief “would have likely severely prohibited the distribution of the manufacturer’s products” within the United States.

A federal district court judge initially ruled that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act protected the gun manufacturers from the suit. In 2024, the First Circuit Court of Appeals revitalized the lawsuit. In response, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson brought the case to the Supreme Court.

The PLCAA, signed into law in 2005 by President George W. Bush, shields gun manufacturers and dealers from liability when crimes are committed with their products. The law includes exceptions which Mexico’s lawyers sought to invoke.

The original suit by Mexico, which named multiple U.S.-based gun manufacturers as defendants, claimed that Mexicans “have been victimized by a deadly flood of military-style and other particularly lethal guns that flows from the U.S. across the border.” It also argued that U.S. companies were negligent in their sales practices, claiming that the gun companies “are not accidental or unintentional players in this tragedy; they are deliberate and willing participants, reaping profits from the criminal market they knowingly supply.”

In response, lawyers for Smith & Wesson argued in a filing that the lawsuit “faults the defendants for producing common firearms” and for “failing to restrict the purchase of firearms by regular citizens.” They made the case that “aiding and abetting criminal activity must involve something more than making products generally.” Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed with this reasoning.

In reference to the injunctive relief that Mexico asked the court to grant, lawyers for Smith & Wesson asserted that the lawsuit was “inflicting costly and intrusive discovery at the hands of a foreign sovereign that is trying to bully the industry into adopting a host of gun-control measures that have been repeatedly rejected by American voters.”

According to some estimates, more than 250,000 firearms are smuggled from the United States into Mexico each year. In contrast, Mexico has one gun store and issues fewer than 50 new gun permits each year. The U.S. is the largest firearm exporter in the world, partly due to relaxed gun laws within the country.

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DACA Recipient Imprisoned in U.S. for Purchasing Guns for Mexican Cartels

A Mexican national under the DACA program has received a significant prison sentence for his involvement in a firearms trafficking scheme. Mario Elier Leal, 22, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for leading a straw purchasing ring supplying weapons to Mexican cartels. The sentencing took place in McAllen, Texas, overseen by Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane.

Leal had pleaded guilty to the charges in 2024, admitting his role in the illegal operation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office detailed that Leal will face deportation proceedings after serving his sentence, as he is not a U.S. citizen. His status under DACA allowed him to remain in the U.S. despite being brought in as a child illegally.

Prosecutors revealed Leal recruited individuals to purchase AK-47-type rifles, which were then smuggled into Mexico. At the time of his arrest, authorities seized three rifles acquired through two young Americans legally able to buy firearms in Texas. Although the court documents did not specify which cartel received the guns, the Gulf Cartel controls the area south of McAllen.

Leal confessed to paying $300 to each participant who bought guns for him, exploiting a loophole in U.S. laws that barred him from purchasing them himself. Federal officials suspect that at least 13 additional weapons were either purchased or in the process of being obtained for Leal. This case highlights the ongoing challenges of gun trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The connection to the Gulf Cartel, though not explicitly stated, raises concerns about the porous nature of the border in terms of illegal arms smuggling. The Gulf Cartel has long been a dominant force in the region, and activities like Leal’s only serve to strengthen their grip. Authorities are keen to reinforce the legal measures that prevent such trafficking.

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TERRIFYING: Dangerous Parasite That Eats Animals and Humans Alive Rapidly Marches Toward America With Help from the Mexican Drug Cartels

A dangerous flesh-eating parasite is rapidly marching toward the United States despite several desperate efforts to halt its advance. And one can thank the Mexican drug cartels for this.

As The Atlantic notes, the United States has been fighting an aerial war against the New World screwworm for 70 years. This parasite eats animals alive, including cows, pigs, deer, dogs, and even humans.

The larvae of the parasitic fly harboring the worm rip through flesh and transform small pricks into huge, revolting wounds. Worse, they produce foul-smelling odors resembling sewer gas.

It’s no wonder the worm’s scientific name, C. hominivorax, translates to “man-eater.”

In the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched an all-out assault to eradicate the screwworm.

Here is how they did it, according to The Atlantic.

Workers raised screwworms in factories, blasted them with radiation until they were sterile, and dropped the sterile adult screwworms by the millions—even hundreds of millions—weekly over the U.S., then farther south in Mexico, and eventually in the rest of North America.

The worm was eradicated from North America and Central America in the 20th century, but things have turned dark.

The outbreak began in Panama, skyrocketing from dozens a year to 1,000, despite ongoing drops of sterile flies. According to the Atlantic, the parasite then began moving northward, at first slowly and then rapidly, by 2024.

As of this month, the parasite has advanced 1,600 miles through eight countries to reach the Mexican States of Oaxaca and Veracruz, just 700 miles away from the Texas border.

According to Mark Eisele, a Cheyenne-based rancher and former president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the advance of screwworms is partly due to the Mexican drug cartels.

“All we needed to do was keep a flow of those planes. But the cartels were extorting money for every flight of flies that came out of Panama. They were extorting $35,000 a plane,” he said. “So, for all practical purposes, this is really kind of a political closing to make a point that they have got to get their act together.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has responded by indefinitely shutting down animal imports from or transferring through Mexico.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins released a statement on the invasion last week.

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Mexico’s first judicial elections include ex-convicts and cartel lawyers

Mexico is preparing to hold its first-ever judicial elections, and concerns are growing over the criminal histories and affiliations of candidates on the ballot.

Among those seeking positions are individuals previously investigated for crimes ranging from organized crime to sexual abuse, and even an ex-convict who served time in a US prison for drug smuggling, says the New York Times.

The judicial elections, scheduled for Sunday, will decide 2,681 positions, including some on Mexico’s Supreme Court.

The reform was introduced last year by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and is supported by current President Claudia Sheinbaum. They argue that the shift from appointments to public elections will reduce corruption and make the system more accountable to voters.

However, critics, including legal experts, have warned that opening up the judiciary to electoral politics could compromise judicial independence and allow unqualified or compromised individuals to gain power. Some also worry the process may increase the influence of organized crime in Mexico’s already-broken justice system.

At least four candidates have previously faced criminal investigations, according to letters obtained by The Times. These letters, sent in early May by the leaders of both congressional chambers—controlled by the ruling Morena party—asked electoral officials to disqualify 18 candidates accused of failing to meet the constitutional requirement of a “good reputation.”

Among those on the ballot is Fernando Escamilla, a 32-year-old candidate for a state criminal judgeship in Nuevo Leon. He previously provided legal services to Miguel Angel Treviño and Eleazar Medina-Rojas, two senior figures in the Zetas cartel.

Escamilla has defended his work, stating he merely advised on extradition law and believes it would be “unfair” to disqualify him from practicing law.

“It’s like a doctor,” Escamilla said. “When patients arrive at the emergency room, the doctor doesn’t ask what they do for a living before deciding whether to treat them, they just do.”

Other candidates have more serious criminal pasts. Leopoldo Javier Chávez Vargas was arrested in 2015 in Texas for attempting to smuggle meth into the US. He served nearly six years in prison and is now seeking a federal judgeship in Durango.

“I don’t deny my past,” he said. “I have fully accepted the consequences.”

Another candidate, Jesus Humberto Padilla Briones, was arrested in 2023 with meth and an illegal firearm.

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