Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris requesting to classify Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel New Generation as state terrorist groups.
(Texas United States – TYT) – The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, issued an executive order to designate Mexican cartels as “terrorist organizations” and instructed the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) to take immediate measures to address security in the U.S. entity. Abbott sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris requesting to classify the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel New Generation, among other cartels that produce and distribute drugs, as federal terrorist organizations.
“Fentanyl is an underground killer, and Texans are being victimized by the Mexican cartels that produce it,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement. “The cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treat them that way. More Americans died from fentanyl poisoning last year than all terrorist attacks worldwide in the last 100 years. To save our country, particularly our next generation, we must do more to get fentanyl off our streets.”
The governor also directed DPS and other law enforcement authorities to identify gangs allied with Mexican cartels, seize their assets and disrupt their trafficking and communication networks. He emphasized that the Biden administration needs immediate, decisive action to combat drug trafficking.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump said in 2019 that he would designate Mexican cartels as terrorist groups for their role in drug and human trafficking, this after the murder of the LeBaron family. “They will be designated (…) I’ve been working on that for the last 90 days. You know the designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we’re well into that process,” Trump had told conservative journalist Bill O’Reilly. At the time, Trump argued that designating Mexican cartels as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” would give the U.S. government more power to deal more effectively with drugs flowing into its territory. The U.S. Congress also considered this possibility, but without success.
However, the idea was frozen after losing the presidential election in 2020. The administration of Joe Biden has not made that decision, despite having expressed it to the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, despite the dialogue with the Mexican government, both for the control of the border and the fight against drug trafficking.
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