The Mexican drug cartels are apparently fearing for their lives with the Trump administration targeting them under the auspices of its new border security crackdown initiative, according to reports.
The New York Times, in a bizarrely sympathetic report on Sunday, explained that the cartels are scrambling to figure out how to survive through the second Trump administration after President Donald Trump declared them terrorists and authorized the U.S. military to begin operations against them.
Trump Threats and Mexico’s Crackdown Hit Mexican Cartel
— Cartel Watch (@CartelWatchNet) March 3, 2025
Several cartel operatives said that for the first time in years, they genuinely feared arrest or death at the hands of the authorities.
"One cartel leader says he’s trying to figure out how to protect his family in case… pic.twitter.com/KHW4c1gMiG
From the NYT:
One cartel leader says he’s trying to figure out how to protect his family in case the American military strikes inside Mexico. Another says he’s already gone into hiding, rarely leaving his home. Two young men who produce fentanyl for the cartel say they have shut down all their drug labs.
A barrage of arrests, drug seizures and lab busts by the Mexican authorities in recent months has struck the behemoth Sinaloa Cartel, according to Mexican officials and interviews with six cartel operatives, forcing at least some of its leaders to scale back on fentanyl production in Sinaloa state, their stronghold.
The cartels have sown terror across Mexico and caused untold damage in the United States. But here in Culiacán, the state capital, the dynamic seems to be shifting, at least for now. Cartel operatives say they’ve had to move labs to other areas of the country or temporarily shut down production.
“You can’t be calm, you can’t even sleep, because you don’t know when they’ll catch you,” said one high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel who, like other cartel operatives, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of capture.
“The most important thing now is to survive,” he added, his hands trembling.
You’d think the way the NYT was writing about these deadly cartels that they were some kind of helpless indigenous tribe being forced out of their homeland by greedy land developers.
The Times piece went on to describe how some cartel members were selling off their properties and firing personnel in response to the major reduction in fentanyl distribution thanks to Trump’s border crackdown.
“Criminal groups have not felt this level of pressure in such a long time,” said Jaime López, a security analyst based in Mexico City.
In interviews, cartel operatives agreed. Some said they were selling off property and firing unessential personnel to make up for lost income from the dent in the fentanyl trade. Others said they were investing money in advanced equipment to detect American government drones, which the United States flew into Mexico during the Biden and Obama administrations as well.
Criminal organizations in Mexico have a long history of surviving efforts to dismantle them, or simply splintering off into new groups. But several operatives said that for the first time in years, they genuinely feared arrest or death at the hands of the authorities.
Trump’s State Department last month designated transnational cartels, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations, which has led to the U.S. military expanding operations into Mexico, including deploying surveillance drones, and discussions of possibly carrying out airstrikes against top members.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned the Mexican government last week that the U.S. is prepared to take “unilateral action” against the cartels if more isn’t done to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl and illegal migrants into the US.
“All options will be on the table,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum declared that she intended to change the constitution to put the Mexican cartels beyond the reach of the U.S. military.
But according to The Times, cartel members are making their own preparations for possible direct confrontations with the U.S. military, including amassing more firepower and “importing scanners to detect drones.”
“If a helicopter comes here and soldiers drop out, 20 or 30 of them,” one operative said, “there’s no way we’d just sit here with our arms crossed.”
However, other cartel members, some of whom see themselves more as “businessmen” than terrorists, admitted that the “only reason the government hadn’t really fought them up until recently was because they’d bought off enough officials.”
“One cartel cell leader said he doubted that this new effort would seriously damage the cartel because the group could ensure its survival by bribing key officials,” the NYT reported.
“There are always weak points,” he said, “there are always loose ends we can get to.”
The New York Times raised eyebrows in January after publishing another sympathetic piece titled, “How Labeling Cartels ‘Terrorists’ Could Hurt the U.S. Economy.”
“These criminal networks have extended their operations far beyond drug trafficking and human smuggling,” the Times reported. “They are now embedded in a wide swath of the legal economy, from avocado farming to the country’s billion-dollar tourism industry, making it hard to be absolutely sure that American companies are isolated from cartel activities.”
In related news, Mexico last week transferred 29 cartel members to the U.S. as a good-faith gesture to Trump, perhaps as a way of dissuading him from imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico.
But that didn’t seem enough to appease the president — Trump’s 25% tariffs against Mexico went into effect on Tuesday.
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