U.S. State Dept Designates Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras as Foreign Terrorist Organizations

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

A burned out vehicle where nine members of the Lebaron family were killed by La Linea in 2019.

The U.S. Department of State yesterday designated the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), bringing the total number of Mexican criminal groups on the list to eight.

The designations significantly expand the U.S. government’s legal and financial tools to disrupt these groups, enabling asset freezes, prohibitions on transactions with U.S. persons, and enhanced penalties for providing material support or resources to the organizations.

This is the second tranche of Mexican criminal groups to be added. Last February, the Trump administration added the Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), Cartel del Noreste, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Gulf Cartel, and Carteles Unidos to the FTO list.

Los Viagras is a Mexican criminal organization based in the state of Michoacán, known for its involvement in methamphetamine production, extortion, kidnapping, and violent turf wars, often clashing with rival groups like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

The Juárez Cartel, one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking groups, operates primarily along the Texas-Mexico border in Ciudad Juárez, where it has long controlled major smuggling routes for cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and fentanyl into the United States.

The Juárez Cartel was the group whose actions sparked the initial conversation about designation of criminal groups in Mexico as terrorist groups when members of their armed wing La Linea murdered three women and six children from a Mormon community in Sonora. 

Sources: State Department, Proceso