U.S. designates Juarez Cartel and Los Viagras as terrorist organizations

The United States has designated Mexico’s Juarez Cartel and Los Viagras as terrorist organizations, expanding terrorism-related sanctions and criminal penalties against both groups.

The State Department notice was filed Wednesday and will be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, when the designations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) take effect. The Treasury Department also added both groups to its sanctions list as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

The designations allow the U.S. to block property and financial interests linked to the cartels, prohibit transactions involving U.S. persons and impose penalties for knowingly providing material support. Foreign individuals and companies that conduct certain transactions with the groups also face the risk of secondary sanctions.

The Juarez Cartel controls territory in and around Ciudad Juarez, directly across the border from El Paso, Texas. The location has made the area one of the most important drug trafficking corridors into the United States.

The organization was built by the Carrillo Fuentes family and became one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels under Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was known as the “Lord of the Skies” because of his use of aircraft to transport large quantities of cocaine. He died in 1997 after undergoing plastic surgery, and control later passed to his brother, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

The State Department listed La Linea and Barrio Azteca as aliases of the Juarez Cartel. La Línea has long operated as the cartel’s armed wing, while Barrio Azteca is a prison and street gang with roots on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border that has worked with the organization.

The Juarez Cartel began a major war with the Sinaloa Cartel for control of the border corridor in 2008. The conflict caused thousands of killings and helped turn Ciudad Juarez into the world’s most violent city during the height of the fighting.

Los Viagras emerged in the western state of Michoacan around 2013 and initially operated alongside armed self-defense groups fighting the Knights Templar cartel. It later developed into a criminal organization involved in drug trafficking, extortion and organized violence.

The group has fought the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) for control of territory in Michoacan and has operated as part of Carteles Unidos, an alliance of criminal groups opposed to the Jalisco cartel.

The Trump administration previously designated six other Mexican organizations as terrorist groups: the CJNG, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, the Northeast Cartel and Carteles Unidos.

Other groups designated by the administration include Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles from Venezuela; Los Choneros and Los Lobos from Ecuador; Clan del Golfo from Colombia; the Brazilian groups Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital; and the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs.