Trump Secretly Ordered Military to Take On Cartels: Report
President Trump has discreetly authorized the U.S. military to employ force against Latin American drug cartels identified as foreign terrorist organizations, as reported on Friday.
This directive represents Trump’s most assertive action to date against gangs involved in trafficking drugs like fentanyl across the U.S.-Mexico border—an area that has traditionally been managed mainly by federal law enforcement.
Initially reported on Friday by The New York Times, the order provides U.S. forces with formal authority to engage with cartels both on land and at sea.
“The president is committed to not only dismantling – but entirely obliterating – [Venezuelan dictator Nicolas] Maduro’s Cartel de Los Soles and eradicating their operations in the Western Hemisphere,” a source close to the White House stated.
The State Department’s roster of foreign terrorist organizations involved in drug trafficking includes Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, the Cartel de Los Soles, and the El Salvador-based Mara Salvatrucha, commonly referred to as MS-13.
Trump has openly considered the possibility during the 2024 campaign of permitting military action against drug cartels functioning within Mexico, as reported by the New York Post.
Since resuming office, he has raised tariffs on Canada and Mexico, citing their inability to prevent drug and human smuggling into the United States, and has instructed immigration authorities to focus on new arrivals suspected of gang affiliations.
Trump has also invited families affected by gang violence to the White House and has vowed to confiscate cartel assets and redirect them to families impacted by what he describes as “migrant crime.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has been a central target of the administration’s initiatives, The Post noted.
On Thursday, the Justice and State Departments revealed a $50 million reward for information that could lead to the arrest of Maduro, who faces charges for violating U.S. drug trafficking laws.
The anti-cartel initiative is being organized across various agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security, along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of the Treasury, according to a source.
“President Trump’s primary focus is safeguarding the homeland, which is why he made the decisive move to classify several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations,” stated deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly in a press release.
Earlier this week, reports indicated that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently apprehended a known fugitive from El Salvador who had an arrest warrant issued in his native country.
Cristian Alberto Rivas-Escalante, 29, was detained at a work site on Marco Island, Florida, in mid-June, according to reports. He is among the thousands of criminal aliens being targeted for deportation under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy.
“(ICE) came to the Island to find and arrest an individual with an outstanding fugitive warrant. Contrary to some concerns, this was not an immigration raid,” David Ennis, a captain with the Marco Island Police Department (MIPD), stated in an email to the media and shared on the department’s social media platforms.
“Agents were specifically focused on locating one individual who was working in the area due to his previous criminal conduct,” Ennis added.
Rivas-Escalante was residing in Southwest Florida, somewhere off the island, as reported by Mike Meares, ICE public affairs officer in Tampa overseeing Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement, and Removal Operations.
In 2015, he unlawfully entered the United States and is currently sought by authorities in his native El Salvador, as reported by Meares, who was present in Marco Island during the arrest. Designated as a “criminal alien,” Rivas-Escalante is recognized as a member of the 18th Street Gang.
The 18th Street Gang is a well-known adversary of MS-13, which the U.S. Department of State officially classified as a foreign terrorist organization on February 20. MS-13 was initially established in Los Angeles and quickly spread throughout Central America following the deportation of many of its members, according to the Naples Daily News.