US Designates 2 More Mexican Cartels as Terrorist Groups

The United States has formally designated two additional Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, expanding the Trump administration’s crackdown on transnational criminal networks to eight groups. The Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras were redesignated from drug trafficking organizations to Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on July 15, according to AP News.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that both criminal groups “either have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of committing acts that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.” The designation was published in the Federal Register on July 16.

Background: A Growing Blacklist

The designations mark the latest escalation in a policy shift that began in February 2025, when President Donald Trump first extended the terrorist label to six Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, Cárteles Unidos, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana. The move reframes drug trafficking as a national security and terrorism threat, enabling more aggressive legal and financial tools against the organizations.

The Juárez Cartel, one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking organizations, controls the key border crossing at Ciudad Juárez-El Paso, Texas. Founded in the 1970s and led for years by Amado Carrillo Fuentes — known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for pioneering airborne drug smuggling in the 1990s — the cartel has maintained a vast infrastructure for smuggling narcotics and people into the United States despite the arrests of many of its leaders. The cartel was linked to the 2019 LeBaron family massacre, in which nine U.S. citizen women and children were killed by cartel gunmen near the New Mexico border, as Breitbart reported.

Los Viagras, based in the western state of Michoacán, emerged from the 2013–2014 armed uprising by farmers who drove out older cartels, only to transform into a dominant criminal organization themselves. The group is known for mass killings, forced disappearances, and the use of drones to drop explosives on rivals and Mexican military forces. Its leader, Nicolás Sierra Santana, faces a formal indictment in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to traffic drugs, with the State Department offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

What the FTO Designation Means

Under U.S. law, the FTO designation carries significant legal and financial consequences. It makes it a federal crime for any person under U.S. jurisdiction to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to the designated organizations. It also freezes all U.S.-linked assets, prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from conducting business with them, and triggers secondary sanctions risks for foreign entities that do business with the groups.

Mexican security analyst David Saucedo told AP News that the designation is “key to enabling the United States to take more decisive action along the border,” particularly given the Juárez Cartel’s control of the El Paso crossing.

Strained US-Mexico Relations

The designations come amid heightened diplomatic tensions between the Trump administration and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government. The U.S. recently indicted 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, and controversies over U.S. operations in Mexican territory have further strained relations.

Sheinbaum has pushed back forcefully against U.S. claims of government-cartel links. Earlier this week, she rejected remarks from DEA Administrator Terry Cole, who said the Mexican government and cartel networks were “one and the same,” calling them “more like a political statement than one backed by evidence,” as Al Jazeera reported. The Mexican government has stated it remains willing to collaborate with the U.S. to combat crime, provided its sovereignty is respected.

Analysis and Outlook

The expansion of the FTO list signals that the Trump administration is prepared to escalate pressure on Mexico unilaterally, even as bilateral cooperation on security issues becomes increasingly fraught. The inclusion of the Juárez Cartel — which controls a vital border crossing — has direct implications for border security operations in Texas and may enable more aggressive U.S. action against cartel financial networks.

For Mexico, the designations intensify a pattern of U.S. unilateral action that the Sheinbaum administration views as infringing on national sovereignty. The question now is whether the legal and financial tools provided by the FTO designation will lead to operational changes on the ground, or whether the primary impact will remain diplomatic — further straining a relationship already tested by indictments, deportation controversies, and disputes over military operations.