President Trump's policies on immigration, drug trafficking, and cartels on the southern border moved from design into action. On February 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) obtained cooperation from the Mexican government to extradite two members of the Barrio Azteca (BA) transnational criminal organization (TCO) to the U.S., where they will face charges for the murder of employees of a U.S. consultant in Juarez in 2010. On the same day, the DOJ indicted 14 alleged members of a prolific alien smuggling organization focused on migrants from South and Central America.

The Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas helped lead the BA case, while the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico is doing the same for the human smuggling prosecutions. These developments suggest that Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi's new policy advocating for decentralized DOJ enforcement, discussed here, is now in play.

The DOJ's efforts are part of a larger strategy that Trump began rolling out on day one of his second term to focus policy on Latin America and address cartel control and support. A key component of the strategy occurred on February 19, 2025, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated eight cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The eight cartels, which operate throughout Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, and El Salvador are: Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Cárteles Unidos, Cártel del Noreste, Cártel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

The FTO designations create heightened risk for companies operating in Latin America. As we described here, companies can now face civil and criminal liability under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for providing material support to cartels, civil forfeiture of assets connected to providing material support or engaging in planning or perpetrating terrorism, U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) liability for bribery connected to supporting a cartel, liability under anti-money laundering (AML) laws for dealing in proceeds of cartel-related crimes, and U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) risks for dealings with related sanctioned parties. 

Companies doing business in cartel-controlled areas of Mexico and other parts of Latin America must take a risk-based approach in their corporate compliance efforts. To help companies calibrate their compliance efforts in light of these new enforcement risks, Miller & Chevalier has prepared maps showing the presence of FTO-designated cartels in Latin America.¹ The maps show:

• Cartel presence in Mexico is now pervasive. There are far more states in which cartels have presence than ones where they do not.
• Tren de Aragua is spread out over Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. 
• Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) has a presence in Central America, in particular Honduras and Guatemala.

Click the maps to see them at full size.

For more information, please contact:

Matteson Ellis, mellis@milchev.com, 202-626-1477

Maria Elena Lapetina, mlapetina@milchev.com, 202-626-1586

James G. Tillen, jtillen@milchev.com, 202-626-6068

Facundo Galeano, fgaleano@milchev.com, 202-626-5961

or any Member of our Latin America team. 

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¹These maps are based on data provided by insightcrime.org and other global and local sources. 

The information contained in this communication is not intended as legal advice or as an opinion on specific facts. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. For more information, please contact one of the senders or your existing Miller & Chevalier lawyer contact. The invitation to contact the firm and its lawyers is not to be construed as a solicitation for legal work. Any new lawyer-client relationship will be confirmed in writing.

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