Photo: ENRIQUE CASTRO / AFP / Getty Images
The Trump Administration is using sanctions in an effort to fight the deadly Mexican drug cartels.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two high-ranking Cartel del Noreste (CDN) members, Mexican nationals Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma and Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda. CDN was one of eight cartels and transnational criminal groups labeled foreign terrorist organizations by the State Department.
While announcing the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department is "working toward the total elimination of cartels to make America safe again" and that the Trump administration "will hold these terrorists accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence."
"CDN and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border," said Bessent. "We will continue to cut off the cartels’ ability to obtain the drugs, money and guns that enable their violent activities."