State Dept. to Designate Tren de Aragua, Cartels as Terrorist Organizations

State Dept. to Designate Tren de Aragua, Cartels as Terrorist Organizations

The State Department will designate the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Mexican cartels, and other gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

The Federal Register will publish the public notice tomorrow.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio writes that he reviewed Administrative Records and consulted with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent before reaching the decision.

The list includes:

• Tren de Aragua (also known as Aragua Train)
• Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13)
• Cartel de Sinaloa (also known as Sinaloa Cartel, Mexican Federation, Guadalajara Cartel)
• Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (also known as New Generation Cartel of Jalisco, CJNG, Jalisco New Generation Cartel)
• Carteles Unidos (also known as United Cartels, Tepalcatepec Cartel, Cartel de Tepalcatepec, The Grandfather Cartel, Cartel del Abuelo, Cartel de Los Reyes)
• Cartel del Noreste (also known as CDN, Northeast Cartel, Los Zetas)
• Cartel del Golfo (also known as CDG, Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cardenas-Guillen Organization)
• La Nueva Familia Michoacana (also known as LNFM)

So what does this mean? Here are three ramifications:

1. It is unlawful for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated FTO. (The term “material support or resources” is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)(1) as ” any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who maybe or include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials.” 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)(2) provides that for these purposes “the term ‘training’ means instruction or teaching designed to impart a specific skill, as opposed to general knowledge.” 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)(3) further provides that for these purposes the term ‘expert advice or assistance’ means advice or assistance derived from scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge.’’

2. Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances, removable from the United States (see 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182 (a)(3)(B)(i)(IV)-(V), 1227 (a)(1)(A)).

3. Any U.S. financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which a designated FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to put these gangs on the FTO list.

“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” Trump wrote.

Trump added: “The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States. In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society.”

Everyone knows about the Mexican drug cartels. We gained even more knowledge about them after a drug cartel member murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry with a gun connected to Operation Fast & Furious, a gun-running scheme established under former President Barack Obama and former AG Eric Holder’s DOJ.

Another gang member murdered ICE agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico with a gun from another gun-running scheme.

We must never forget Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata.

“In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society,” the order continued. “The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere. Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.”

MS-13 has been around since the 1980s in Los Angeles, CA, but has gone international. While born in America, it contains mostly El Salvadorans. I know we’ve been covering their horrific crimes for years.

Tren de Aragua gained attention recently when it took over Aurora, CO, snatching apartment buildings and terrorizing the residents.

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