Trump’s nov­el legal strat­e­gy pum­mels alleged ‘nar­co-ter­ror­ists’ and car­tel mem­bers

A wave of fed­er­al charges and mil­i­tary actions are root­ed in Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s move to legal­ly rec­og­nize drug car­tels and gangs as for­eign ter­ror­ists.
Bomb­ings of alleged drug boats, at least two dozen pros­e­cu­tions, and the military’s Jan­u­ary cap­ture of Venezue­lan dic­ta­tor Nico­las Maduro direct­ly stem from Trump’s State Depart­ment list­ing crim­i­nal groups as “For­eign Ter­ror­ist Orga­ni­za­tions,” court records and gov­ern­ment state­ments show. Ter­ror­ism charges tar­get­ing Jalis­co New Gen­er­a­tion Car­tel, or CJNG, led to two con­vic­tions over the sum­mer.

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