The flurry of executive orders from the White House in January included one ordering the State Department to designate “certain international cartels” as foreign terrorist organizations, or FTOs.
In some ways, these cartels do resemble terrorist groups. They terrorize their victims, often innocent civilians. They participate in illicit networks and engage in drug trafficking, just as terrorist groups do, to raise money for their activities.
The difference is their agenda. Terrorists seek political change, while criminals want to make money. To date, the FTO and TCO designations followed the logic of this distinction and were meant to be mutually exclusive. For the first time, the Trump administration is poised to pursue a dual designation—labeling organized criminal groups as terrorist organizations.
The new executive order does not provide any criteria to explain when a TCO will be deemed an FTO. But if major cartels in Mexico and elsewhere are listed, the impact on many U.S. companies and U.S.-Mexico business relations could be considerable. Well before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, banks and payment processors such as PayPal avoided doing business in the West Bank, fearing that their services might be used by terrorist groups—and that they would be held liable for any resulting violence. With the new executive order, U.S. businesses must worry that when they work with a business in Mexico, it might have links to cartels, which are deeply embedded in Mexico’s economy. Banks and payment processors that help transfer remittances to Mexico would be vulnerable to prosecution. All this will make U.S. businesses more cautious, especially about new ventures, given the tremendous litigation risk.
A zealous prosecutor could also use the new material support power to prosecute Americans who purchase drugs—or avocados—from designated cartels. Their crime would no longer be limited to possession of narcotics (or pursuit of the best guacamole); it would count as material support for a terrorist organization. It sounds far-fetched, but the United States has aggressively gone after U.S. residents who aided the Islamic State, including prosecuting a woman who provided packets of hot cocoa as well as a small amount of money to a group member. Justice Department officials in past administrations did not usually take such an expansive view, but such an approach is easier to imagine today. Making America’s drug epidemic a terrorism problem will not solve the drug crisis. Instead, it will dramatically increase the number of Americans prosecuted for drug-related offenses—and lengthen prison sentences for those convicted.