State AGs Tell Biden to Designate Mexican Drug Cartels as Terrorist Organizations

A truck burns after being set on fire amid an eruption of violence following the arrest of Ovidio Guzman Lopez, an alleged high-ranking member of a Mexican drug trafficking cartel, in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, on Jan. 5, 2023. Martin Urista/AP Photo

The attorneys general for 21 states have urged the Biden administration to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) under federal law, pointing to the rising fentanyl crisis.

In a letter (pdf) to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the coalition of attorneys general—led by Virginia’s Jason Miyares, a Republican—said that declaring Mexican drug cartels as FTOs will aid in freeing up resources needed to confront the deadly opioid crisis with the “seriousness it deserves.”

The attorneys general pointed to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which states that in the 12-month period ending in October 2021, more than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, with almost two-thirds of those deaths related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

According to the DEA, the United States suffered more fentanyl-related deaths than gun and auto-related deaths combined in 2021.

The attorneys general cited the DEA stating that drug cartels such as the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) mass produce fentanyl in Mexico using chemicals from China before pressing it into pills or mixing it with other counterfeit pills made to look like Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone.

Mexican soldiers patrol near Naranjo de Chila in the municipality of Aguililla, Mexico, on Feb. 18, 2022. The town was the scene of a bloody turf battle between two drug cartels. Armando Solis/AP Photo

National Security Threat

Such drug operations are done at a low cost and the cartels are illegally transporting those opioids into the United States, they said.

Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. As little as 2 milligrams is potentially enough to be lethal. The DEA has previously warned of a surge in mass overdose events involving the drug, which the agency says is killing Americans at an “unprecedented” rate.

The attorneys general further state that the Mexican drug cartels threaten national security beyond the sale of the deadly drugs, pointing to their creation of “well-organized armed forces to protect their reprehensible trade from rivals and from the Mexican government.”

“The existence of such forces just across our southwestern land border, and the Mexican government’s inability to control them, pose a threat to our national security far greater than a typical drug-trafficking enterprise,” they wrote. “That threat is made greater still by the known links between the Mexican drug cartels and Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) like Hezbollah who already intend to do us harm. Our national security requires the federal government to disrupt this collaboration between cartels and terrorist groups.”

Several state attorneys general earlier this month called on the Biden administration to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. Miyares noted in the letter that to date, no action has been taken so far with regard to their request.

President Joe Biden speaks with a member of the Border Patrol as they walk along the U.S.–Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2023. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

‘Dangerous Terrorist Activity Occurring at Our Border’

“The same cartels who produce and traffic this dangerous chemical are also assassinating rivals and government officials, ambushing, and killing Americans at the border, and engaging in an armed insurgency against the Mexican government,” the attorneys general wrote. “This dangerous terrorist activity occurring at our border will not abate unless we escalate our response.”

The attorneys general added that designating the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, and other similarly situated Mexican drug cartels as FTOs would grant state and federal law enforcement agencies increased powers to freeze cartel assets, deny cartel members entry into the United States, and allow prosecutors to push for tougher punishments against those who provide material support to the cartels.

Attorneys general from the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia, and Virginia signed the letter.

Mexican cartels have already been designated as terrorist organizations in Texas, which is currently battling with an influx of illegal immigrants that’s severely affecting local communities.

The DEA announced on Dec. 20, 2022, that it seized more than 50.6 million fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2022, which represents more than 379 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl.

Biden, who in 2022 announced his plan to “beat the opioid epidemic” as part of his unity agenda, said at his State of the Union address on Feb. 7 that fentanyl “is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year,” prompting Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) to yell, “It’s your fault!” as other lawmakers also expressed their outrage at the growing opioid crisis.