Mexico City - The U.S. government formally designated eight organized criminal organizations in Latin America that are also "foreign terrorist organizations" in the United States. They are involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and extending their territory through violence.
The Trump administration is applying a “terrorist” designation, which is usually reserved for groups like the Islamic State Group or al-Qaeda, which uses violence for political purposes rather than for currency-centric crime rings, e.g. Latin American cartel. The goal is to increase pressure on groups and anyone the United States believes helps them. The name will be released in Thursday's edition of the Federal Gazette, according to Wednesday's notice.
Here are eight Latin American drug cartels marked as foreign terrorist organizations:
Through various avatars, the Sinaloa Cartel is Mexico's oldest criminal group, dating back to the 1970s. It is a criminal group, an umbrella for various groups, headquartered on a hill in the country of the same name in northwestern Mexico. It firmly controls the west of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sinaloa uses ships, aircraft, immigration and cross-border tunnels to move various drugs across the mainland. It is considered the most corrupt criminal organization in Mexico. A former security chief was found guilty of helping them.
One of their most profitable businesses in recent years is the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is a tens of thousands of overdose deaths in Sinaloa, USA, imports precursors from China. chemical substance, produces the drug and cross talks it.
Sinaloa's supreme leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada started months of internal horse racing in July to win the Zambada loyalists and cartels' best The power between the sons of famous former leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has served his sentence
In 2011, the terrible discovery of 30 dismembered bodies found in the hotel area of Veracruz announced the arrival of the “Zeta Killers”, who soon established themselves as Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a super violent and fast-growing group , spread all over. A franchise agreement with local gangs.
Jalisco state is named after northwestern Mexico, which used explosive drones and simple explosive devices to attack Mexican authorities, including military helicopters. It even attempted to carry out a stunning assassination of the then-Mexican city police chief (now the director of security in Mexico) in the heart of the capital.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, led by Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera, said Jalisco distributed large quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl in all 50 states.
Both the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel operate at the eastern end of the U.S.-Mexico border, moving drugs, immigration, guns and money in the most direct routes from Central and South America.
The Gulf Cartel has a long history in Mexico, but its breakdown in recent years has stimulated frequent clashes between factions.
Its former leader, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (now imprisoned in Mexico after serving his sentence in the United States), recruited members of the Mexican military in the late 1990s, forming a terrible element known as the Zetas, which eventually split and became their own drug trafficking organization.
The Northeast Cartel is a remnant of Zetas.
The Northeast Cartel retains a relatively small part of the Zetas once ruled through relentless violence. Their base is Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial port on the U.S.-Mexico border.
These local organized crime groups operating in the Midwest of Mexico make synthetic drugs, but because of other things: avocados.
Security analyst David Saucedo noted that Michoacan exports $2.8 billion in avocado, a trade threatened by local criminal groups. These groups repeatedly threatened U.S. inspectors who checked pests by rice oasis, who controlled production by extortion and threatening growers and to some extent control the price of avocados.
More than a decade ago, the organized criminal organization emerged from a prison in central Venezuela. In recent years, it has spread from Chile to the United States, exploiting about 8 million Venezuelans to escape the outflow of their country's political and economic crisis.
Although its origin is drug trafficking, its main business is immigration smuggling, human trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced labour. It is known for its extreme violence - beheading and burying victims alive - causing panic in countries throughout the hemisphere.
Tren de Aragua implies that earnings were washed through cryptocurrency in criminal networks in South America, and now poses a threat in various U.S. cities, U.S. authorities say. Trump and his allies seized the gang's existence, making it the face of the threat posed by undocumented immigrants.
This violent street gang, also known as MS-13, is a man Trump caught during his first presidency because of the threat posed by immigration, just like he is now using Tren de Aragua. What he did not mention is that it originated in the Los Angeles community in the 1980s, consisted mainly of refugees from the El Salvador Civil War and other immigrants, but grew to include many American citizens.
In the United States, the gang is known for its cruel violence and street drug sales.
The deported El Salvadors spread the gang to El Salvador, where rapidly developing, corrupt and overwhelming local authorities. The gang and its competitors controlled the territorial shackles, forcibly recruited and extorted residents.
The gang in El Salvador has been severely weakened since President Nayib Bukele launched a full-out attack on the gang and other street gangs about three years ago. During this period, his government arrested more than 80,000 people on suspicion of gang tie, although civil rights groups say there is no due process.
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Associated Press reporter Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, D.C. contributed to the report.