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Conquering Cartels




Thirteen months ago, less than 50 days into the new Trump Administration, we proclaimed that the “Biggest Loser” for 2025 would be the violent Mexican Cartels. Why? The cartels had been accustomed to extorting $10,000 or more from each of the ten million plus migrants flooding the US open border. They were also making tens of billions of dollars by engaging in human and sex trafficking, and by sneaking into the United States dangerous, lethal drugs like heroin and fentanyl. It hadn’t taken long for President Trump to close the border, so we predicted that the hundreds of Billions of dollars that was going to the Cartels would soon disappear into thin air.


It appears that our prediction was spot on. Just a few days ago, Border Czar, Tom Homan, said that President Donald Trump’s operation against the Mexican cartels had been successful, and he said that the ​“Cartels are going broke.” Sara Carter, director of the National Drug Control Policy, added the following: securing the U.S. border has meant fewer illegal immigrants and drugs, especially fentanyl. ​“We’ve seen a decrease in fentanyl coming into our country of around 56 percent to 57 percent, which is phenomenal.”


The Trump Administration continued its war on illegal drugs by focusing on Venezuela, and by conducting strikes on (alleged) drug runners using drug carrying boats. As of late February 2026, the U.S. military had conducted at least 44 strikes against these drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. That was just the beginning. In November 2025, NBC reported that the Trump administration has begun detailed planning for a new mission to send American troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels.


Then two months later, in January 2026, President Donald Trump announced in an interview that the United States would begin launching strikes on cartels in Mexico. “We knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land with regard with the cartels…The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country. They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 in our country every single year. You have to do something with Mexico. We’d love Mexico to do it; they’re capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico.”


I think it is important to note that previous U.S. administrations have quietly deployed CIA, military and law enforcement teams to Mexico to support local police and army units fighting cartels, but they did not take direct action against them; so direct U.S. Military action would be a decided break from the past. Fortunately, it hasn’t come to that, for Trump’s pressure campaign focused on Mexico seems to have worked.


On February 22 of this year, the Mexican army killed the country’s most powerful cartel leader during an attempt to capture him. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (El Mencho) was one of the United States’ most wanted fugitives. It is notable that while U.S. intelligence services helped Mexico find him, no U.S. troops were involved in Mexico’s military action.


It is also notable that, as a sign of increased cooperation, Mexico had quietly extradited 92 cartel members to stand trial in the United States. The suspects include the brother of now deceased El Mencho. Not surprising to us, the Justice Department said many of the 92 defendants released had US extradition requests that were not honored during the Biden administration.


However, President Trump is not just focusing on Mexico. In March of this year, President Trump hosted a hemispheric security meeting, which he called the Shield of Americas Summit, which aimed to promote freedom, security and prosperity while countering drug cartels and criminal gangs. Political leaders from 17 Latin American countries attended. One important attendee was Ecuador’s Interior Minister, who proclaimed “we are at war” with the drug cartels. Ecuador is located between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest producers of cocaine. Around 70% of the cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru is estimated to be shipped through Ecuador. And war it is, for the government of Ecuador has now deployed more than 75,000 police officers and soldiers to four of the country's most violence-wracked provinces.


We urge reads not to underestimate the potential for Cartel violence here in the United States, Mexico and the rest of the Americas. Cartel income has been slashed dramatically, and we don’t think the Cartels will go down without a fight. We note that on March 24 Federal prosecutors in Virginia charged four men with conspiring to supply the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación with a $58 million military arsenal that included rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones, and high-powered explosives the brokers boasted could bring down helicopters.


These are dangerous times, indeed.



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