FBI Expands Anti-Terrorism Focus to Target Cartels and Gangs Including Tren de Aragua

The FBI is expanding its counterterrorism efforts to target transnational gangs and cartels, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, now deemed ‘alien enemies.’

Kash Patel, then nominee for director of the FBI, testifies before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 30, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The FBI is expanding its counterterrorism mission to aggressively target transnational organized crime, including notorious criminal groups such as the Tren de Aragua gang, whose members President Donald Trump recently designated as “alien enemies” engaged in an invasion of U.S. territory.

The shift, announced in a March 19 statement, underscores the growing threat posed by transnational drug cartels and gangs, eight of which were recently designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). It reflects a broader national security strategy that extends terror watchlisting measures to cartel operatives, who are frequently tied to illegal border crossings, drug trafficking, and violent crimes within the United States.

“Border security is essential to protecting our country and providing safer communities for our citizens,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “We’re expanding the watchlist to include cartel and gang members from newly designated foreign terrorist organizations. This change will assist our law enforcement and Intelligence Community partners as we all work together toward the goal of crushing violent crime within our borders.”

The FBI’s sharpened focus on international cartels and gangs is marked by the renaming of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) to the Threat Screening Center. The FBI said this change will expand the scope of national security screening beyond traditional terrorism to cover groups such as Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the Sinaloa Cartel, which have extended their operations onto U.S. soil.

“Transnational organized crime watchlisting plays an important role in U.S. security interests while we continue to prevent terrorist attacks,” TSC director Michael Glasheen said in a statement. ‘The name change is a signal to the American people that the TSC is a powerful tool that can be used to fight all national security threats.”

The shift builds on the State Department’s formal designation of eight major cartels and gangs as FTOs and Specially Designated Global Terrorists—a move that significantly expands U.S. law enforcement’s ability to freeze assets, deny visas, and impose financial sanctions on those affiliated with these groups.

The eight targeted entities include Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel del Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos.

The designations cut off these organizations from the U.S. financial system, making it harder for them to move money and resources across borders. They also provide a legal foundation for stronger prosecution efforts against cartel associates operating within the United States.

As part of his broader crackdown on crime and campaign to bolster border security, Trump issued a proclamation on March 15, invoking an 18th-century law to classify Tren de Aragua members as “alien enemies” engaged in an “invasion or predatory incursion” into U.S. territory. This designation allows for their immediate arrest and deportation under emergency immigration authority.

The proclamation also accuses the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro of facilitating Tren de Aragua’s entry into the United States as part of a deliberate strategy to destabilize the country. Several members of the gang have already been deported under this directive, although legal challenges to the proclamation are pending in U.S. courts.

Amid the administration’s heightened law enforcement and national security push, the White House announced on March 19 that the FBI has successfully captured three fugitives from its “Ten Most Wanted” list since Trump took office in January.

The fugitives include Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, a brutal MS-13 figure accused of ordering assassinations, drug trafficking, and extortion operations across the United States and El Salvador.

“Under President Donald J. Trump, the message to criminals who bring harm and destruction to our communities is simple: you WILL be found and you WILL face justice,” the White House comms team said in a post on social media platform X.