The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.) has released its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, and it paints a grim picture of the Mexican cartel threat. You can see the document yourself here.
Mexican drug cartels are referred to as Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs).
Here’s what the threat assessment says about these TCOs:
“Mexican TCOs are among the world’s leading producers of illicit drugs, such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin; they also control the wholesale trafficking of these drugs, and others such as cocaine, into the United States. These TCOs form business relationships with U.S. drug trafficking organizations and violent criminal organizations for the distribution and retail sale of drugs, which drives addiction, overdose deaths, and violence in communities nationwide. Beyond fueling the drug overdose crisis in the United States, TCOs engage in extreme violence, including murder and intimidation, and hostile takeovers of territory and trafficking routes in Mexico and throughout Latin America. Six powerful Mexican TCOs were designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Department of State: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, the New Michoacán Family, and the United Cartels.”
