The Biden administration on Wednesday ruled out designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations following the kidnapping of four Americans that led to two deaths near the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Designating these cartels as [foreign terrorist organizations] would not grant us any additional authorities that we don’t really have at this time,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a news briefing with reporters. “The United States has powerful sanctions authorities specifically designated to combat narcotics trafficking organizations and the individuals and entities that enable them. So, we have not been afraid to use them.”
The White House is in touch with the families of American citizens who were kidnapped or killed in Mexico in a high-profile international incident that drew the response of the FBI and top Mexican law enforcement, said Jean-Pierre.
“We will do everything in our power to identify, find, and hold accountable the individuals responsible for this attack, and we continue to work in coordination with the Mexican government,” she said. The U.S. Treasury Department, she added, has sanctioned Mexican firms and individuals in connection with the drug trade and cartels in recent months.
In October 2022 and last month, the agency sanctioned members of the powerful Sinaloa cartel who are allegedly part of the organization’s fentanyl and methamphetamine trade. The agency last week targeted Mexican companies linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, with fresh sanctions, according to a news release.
CJNG in some areas has “become heavily engaged in timeshare fraud, which often targets U.S. citizens,” the department said. “This crime, which can defraud victims of their life savings, results in another significant revenue stream for the cartel and strengthens its overall criminal enterprise. Today’s action exposes this CJNG scheme and also serves as a warning to potential victims, many of whom are elderly.”
Jean-Pierre’s response about the Biden administration’s strategies targeting cartels came in the wake of a violent incident that occurred in Matamoros, Mexico, which is located just south of Brownsville, Texas. Four Americans were kidnapped and two of them were killed after they crossed the border for reported medical treatment, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities.
Several U.S. agencies, including the FBI and State Department, issued alerts after the four were kidnapped by armed individuals. The four Americans’ minivan crashed and was fired on shortly after they crossed into the border city of Matamoros last Friday as drug cartel factions tore through the streets, the region’s governor said.
They were found Tuesday in a wooden shack, guarded by a man who was arrested, in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote on the way to the gulf called “Bagdad Beach,” according to the state’s chief prosecutor, Irving Barrios.
The surviving Americans were whisked back to U.S. soil on Tuesday in Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas and just across the border from Matamoros. The convoy of ambulances and SUVs was escorted by Mexican military Humvees and National Guard trucks with mounted machine guns.
A relative of one of the victims said Monday that the four had traveled together from the Carolinas so one of them could get a tummy tuck surgery from a doctor in Matamoros.
The governor said the wounded American, Eric Williams, had been shot in the left leg and the injury was not life threatening. “It’s quite a relief,” said Robert Williams, 38-year-old Eric’s brother. “I look forward to seeing him again and actually being able to talk to him.” Williams said he not sure if the other survivor, Latavia Burgess, was the one seeking the surgery.
A family member of one of the slain Americans, Zindell Brown, had expressed concerns about going to Mexico for the procedure. Brown repeatedly told the others that “we shouldn’t go down,” his sister told news outlets.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Whitehouse Biden Administration refuses to label Mexican cartels as Foreign terrorist organizations,,,,and in doing so, labels themselves as owned by foreign terrorist organizations. Follow the money before our Mexican Drug lord owned Washington politicians get as numerous as the ones in Mexico city that actually now run that country like the American crime families are attempting to now run ours. Just what is Joe and his Alinsky motivated anarchists waiting for ? Apparently waiting for the military leadership getting taken over by the foreign corrupters like in Mexico, then Joe will have a total free hand to Make America Dark Again, and our kids as drugged and Sexually anxious and obsessed as he has made his own socially debilitated children. Our current government acts as frightened, to take on the Drug Cartels,,,or as Cartel bought and paid for, as the corrupt and frightened Mexican government is. Whether this corrupt Whitehouse attempts to rule, or just rule out, they never seem to get it right, or fool all THE PEOPLE all the time, with a spokeswoman that looks more like a deer in the headlights than a light of truth and information she is supposed to be for WE THE PEOPLE. God know we need competent Blacks in positions of high office, but this one, like Kamala, not even close to making the grade and their obvious incompetences will set the black equality movement back another 40 years.
That is the ONLY REASON I can honestly say, that these TRAITORS refuse to do their job.. THAT THEY ARE OWNED BY the cartels.
Oh, I suppose they’re like the Taliban as were told—good business people—just some slight philosophical differences.
Blood is thicker (other people’s) than water (Rio Grand) that runs between the brothers (US/Mexico) so cannot go against family (la familia).
Of course the byden will not do that as he is one of the swamp monsters that is getting money from the cartels to keep the border open for the drug runners, he just can’t stop his supply chain from going away now can he. Between byden and nasty pislousi and several others they are getting millions per year to keep the gates open and the illegals flowing with those packs full of illegal drugs.
We should just declare democrats to be a terrorist organization
They certainly TERRORIZE WE americans!
The best guesstimate on the profit of the Mexican cartels is about $13 BILLION a year. This kind of money may well go to paying off certain politicians in several different nations. It appears nothing of real merit is being done to stop any of it.
Yes, certain crime families in the US for a start.
Remember that byden gets 10% of that money as hunter has been in contact with at least a few of the cartels and may have made deals with them.
What? Mexican drug cartels aren’t terrorist. But vocal parents at school board meetings are. Make NO sense.
BECAUSE the moms don’t PAY The guvtmint… The cartels do.
As a true patriotic American, I’m appalled that our executive branch and the DOJ refuse to protect our country against some of the most vicious and deadly foriegn actors at the invasion of southern border. These cartels that are heavily evolved in human trafficking and infiltrating all 50 states with very deadly fentanyl that are disguised as candy. They have and continue to fire heavy weapons in the presence of our border agents and in many cases, fired them in their direction. They have murdered many south of the border and are now setting up cartel operations north of our border. YES! THEY ARE A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION AND MUST BE ENGAGED USING THE FULL FORCE OF OUR ENTIRE MILITARY! THEY HAVE BEEN ENGAGING IN ACTS OF WAR AGAINST AMERICA FOR MANY YEARS! IT STOPS NOW! If not, our country will turn into killing fields! This is a simple common sense issue that can and should be stopped immediately. If the White House and DOJ do not act, they are complicit in the Cartels criminality!
Pedo Joe doesn’t want to mess up his 10 percent of all the Cartel Action going on at the Border.
But yet jan6 protectors are called Domestic terrorist. I saw the videos from Jan 6th which looked a lot different from the ones liberals used .Carlton tucker should release all the video
WITHOUT any edits..
Does this mean the Biden family interests are tied to the cartels too?
LOL joe23006.
You bet they are, hunter byden was just down there a few months ago very likely Making deals with the cartels.
“The U.S. Army, under Major General Winfield Scott, invaded the Mexican heartland and captured the capital, Mexico City, in September 1847.”
I say we re-commission the only current officer I know of who could do the job, former active duty U.S. Marine LTC. Stuart Scheller, promote him to Maj. General, give him a division with appropriate materiel and ordnance and turn him loose. Adios Muchachos!
Many of the cartels operate so openly and brazenly, WE know where their labs, their banks, and their homes are.. CARPET BOMB them back into the stone age…
No sane man would declare their closest friends as terrorists.
Anyone who would risk crossing the southern border for something as frivolous as a “tummy tuck” is way beyond stupid. Why kind of bubble could they be living in not to know that they were inviting murder and mayhem? They are incredibly lucky that even two of them came home alive.
As for designating the cartels as terrorist groups, it is true that the designation wouldn’t make much legal difference. But it says something important that the Biden Administration is unwilling to brand them with the “offensive” name, but IS willing to brand American parents as terrorists for asking questions about their children’s education.
No surprise; the White House is in the employ of the Cartels.