Trump Treasury Hits Sinaloa Cartel With Terror Sanctions

President Donald Trump’s administration has taken another bold step in the war against deadly drug cartels this time by going directly after the financial backbone of the Sinaloa Cartel.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sweeping sanctions targeting six individuals and seven entities tied to the Sinaloa Cartel’s money laundering operations. The move comes days after the administration officially designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, granting expanded legal authority to crush the group’s influence inside the United States.

“We’ve taken decisive action against the Sinaloa Cartel,” Bessent said. “We leveled sanctions against six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering operation, cutting off financing for these evil people.”

These aren’t just words. Under the sanctions, all assets connected to the named individuals and businesses held in U.S. institutions are frozen and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The strategy is clear: choke off the blood money fueling the cartel’s terror network.

Bessent didn’t hold back in describing the cartel’s destruction:

• The Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for a “significant amount of the fentanyl and illicit drugs” pouring into the U.S.

• These drugs kill thousands of innocent Americans every year, decimating families and communities.

• The cartel has murdered law enforcement agents like Kiki Camarena and U.S. veterans, including Nicholas Quets, who was only 31 when he was killed.
  
  “Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise,” Bessent added. “It’s only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today.”
  

This is no longer just a drug problem it’s a national security threat. The State Department, in its terror designation, described the Sinaloa Cartel as “one of the largest producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other illicit drugs to the United States.” It also cited the cartel’s record of using murder, kidnapping, and intimidation to silence civilians, journalists, and officials alike.

The Trump administration’s multi-agency effort to destroy transnational crime is picking up steam:

• FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the extradition of an MS-13 leader from Mexico earlier this month.

• The administration is invoking the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track deportations of violent foreign nationals, including members of Tren de Aragua, a brutal Venezuelan gang.

• However, progress is being blocked by left-wing judges some of whom have donated tens of thousands to Democrat causes ruling against the use of wartime authority to remove criminal illegals.

Now, the administration is calling on the Supreme Court to intervene, recognizing that protecting the homeland means treating cartels not as criminal enterprises, but as terror networks because that’s what they are.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about saving American lives.

President Trump promised to secure our borders, end the chaos, and dismantle the cartels and with these latest actions, he’s delivering. Once again, the Trump administration is proving it will do what Biden refused to do for four years confront evil with strength.

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