FPI / October 9, 2025
President Donald Trump last week declared the U.S. is at war with drug cartels, designating them as enemy combatants.
In targeting cartels, Trump said in a memo sent to several congressional committees that the U.S. “is in non-international armed conflict with designated terrorist organizations.”
Trump’s declaration is similar to that issued against terrorist groups such as Al Qaida since 2001 that allows killing drug traffickers as enemy combatants, detaining them without trial and prosecuting them in military tribunals, noted security correspondent Bill Gertz in a Washington Times report.
Cartels in Mexico and gangs in Venezuela are seen as the main existential security threat to the United States and are being attacked as narco-terrorists under Trump’s new military-backed war on drugs, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s latest counterdrug threat assessment.
Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel “is one of the most significant threats to the public health, public safety, and national security of the United States,” the report said.
The cartel buys precursor chemicals from China and India in synthesize deadly synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, in Mexico-based clandestine laboratories.
Ports on the U.S. Pacific coast are used to smuggle and import the precursor chemicals for cartel laboratories. The labs produce “millions” of illicit fentanyl pills and “thousands” of pounds of illicit fentanyl powder annually, the report said.
The Sinaloa Cartel also conducts a range of violent criminal activities that seek to protect drug operations, spread their illicit influence, and increase revenue.
Murder, torture and kidnapping are used by the cartel to intimidate citizens, government officials, and journalists, the report said. Other crimes include money laundering, extortion, theft of petroleum and natural resources, weapons trafficking, human smuggling, prostitution, and illegal wildlife trade, the report said.
The two main cartels, Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels, remain dominant dangers through extensive procurement, distribution, and financial support networks in Latin America, China, and other locations.
The DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment lists details on six Latin drug cartels with the two criminal gangs, Tren de Aragua and MS-13, as foreign terrorists. The largest drug-runners were identified as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
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