President Trump’s directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American gangs and cartels has turned a spotlight on those groups and raised a host of questions about legal issues, U.S. intervention abroad and which organization might be targeted.
It remains unclear what plans the Pentagon is drawing up for possible action, and where any potential military operations might take place. Mexico’s president said on Friday that U.S. military action in her country is “absolutely ruled out.”
Mr. Trump directed the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations. The State Department in February designated several gangs and cartels foreign terrorists organizations.
Here is an introduction to some of those groups:
The Sinaloa Cartel
Based in Sinaloa State, in western Mexico
Founded more than 30 years ago by Joaquin Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo, and Ismael Zambada García, a boss known as El Mayo, the Sinaloa Cartel has long stood as one of the world’s most formidable criminal syndicates.
Coordinating an umbrella of criminal cells — not only from Sinaloa State but from across Mexico, with partners, associates and operatives around the world — the cartel has become a leading producer of fentanyl, the opioid that has had a devastating effect in the United States.
But after years evading capture, El Chapo is now serving a life sentence in the United States, and last year one of his sons abducted Mr. Zambada, handing him to U.S. authorities. That set off a war within the cartel — now taking place as the Mexican government, pushed by the Trump administration, is aggressively cracking down on the group.
Still, the cartel has found ways to adapt, and continues to smuggle fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, illustrating how difficult it would be to uproot its network.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel
Based in Jalisco State, in western Mexico
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, long an archrival to the Sinaloa Cartel, now looks poised to become one of the world’s largest drug traffickers through an alliance with a Sinaloa faction controlled by El Chapo’s sons.
The Jalisco cartel has entrenched itself in large parts of the illegal and legal sectors of Mexico’s economy, profiting off not just drugs and weapons but also real estate and avocados and timeshares. The group has a well-developed network across the Americas, with links into Australia, China and Southeast Asia, according to the State Department.
Like its competitors, the gang has used brazen acts of violence to maintain control. The group is believed to be linked to the 2020 assassination of the former governor of the state of Jalisco, as well as a training and recruitment camp discovered in the state this year.
Cartel del Noreste
Based in Nuevo Leon State, in northeastern Mexico
The Cartel del Noreste began as the Zetas, violent enforcers of another group. In the early 2000s, the Zetas gained prominence by using violence to send public messages, and by 2012 controlled large swaths of territory.
Internal rivalries and the killing of its leader by the Mexican Marines in 2012 appeared to weaken the Zetas. But a splinter of the gang re-emerged as Cartel del Noreste, which operated across both sides of the border, trafficking drugs, weapons and migrants across the border for enormous profits.
Tren de Aragua
Originated in Venezuela
From a prison in a northern Venezuelan state, Tren de Aragua’s network and influence has spread to other parts of Latin America, and the group has become known for exploiting vulnerable migrants through trafficking and kidnapping.
The Biden administration labeled the gang a transnational criminal organization in 2024, and in the United States people accused of affiliations with it have been charged with crimes such as shootings and human trafficking, mostly targeting members of the Venezuelan community.
The Trump administration has made the gang a focus of its deportation efforts and rhetoric, which Venezuelan asylum seekers say casts an atmosphere of suspicion and stigma over those fleeing violence and political repression.
The group has been said to work with another organization, the Cartel de los Soles, that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. However, experts say little is known about such a group, and Venezuela’s defense minister dismissed it on Friday as an “invention” by the U.S. government.
MS-13
Linked to El Salvador
MS-13 emerged on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s as a criminal network among immigrants from El Salvador, and has shifted its power base to Central America.
The group was the first criminal street gang designated as a transnational criminal organization in by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2012. It was among the gangs that created chaos and violence in El Salvador for many years, until President Nayib Bukele cracked down on criminal groups through a campaign of mass arrests starting in 2022.
The group was a primary target of Mr. Trump during his first term, and officials in his second term have continued to prosecute cases. But Mr. Bukele has also helped Mr. Trump’s deportation efforts, for which the United States has paid El Salvador millions of dollars, adding an important sweetener at Mr. Bukele’s request: the return of key MS-13 leaders in American custody.
U.S. prosecutors have amassed substantial evidence of a corrupt pact between the Salvadoran government and some high-ranking MS-13 leaders, who they say agreed to drive down violence and bolster Mr. Bukele politically. Mr. Bukele has denied the existence of such a pact.
The Gulf Cartel
Based in Tamaulipas State, in northern Mexico
One of the oldest criminal organizations in Mexico, the gang for years made much of its money and reputation from smuggling cocaine and marijuana cross the U.S. border.
In the early 2000s, it was one of three main groups behind Mexico’s gang wars. Fighting between the Gulf Cartel and their onetime enforces, the Zetas, turned parts of the region into a battle zone, sending thousands fleeing.
In 2012, Mexico celebrated the arrest of the gang’s top leader, but his detention, and that of other Gulf Cartel members, created a vacuum that was quickly filled by other leaders.
La Nueva Familia Michoacana
Based in Michoacán State, in western Mexico
La Nueva Familia Michoacana rapidly rose to power in Mexico’s crowded drug wars. In their home state of Michoacán, the group made much of its money through kidnapping and extortion. As their control spread, they employed bloodier tactics to enforce their power, sometimes attaching notes to the bodies of beheaded victims.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the group’s leaders as part of an operation to target fentanyl trafficking in the United States. In April, U.S. prosecutors charged senior members of the gang with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Annie Correal and Paulina Villegas contributed reporting.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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