The Trump administration on Thursday designated two additional Mexican criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations, expanding a list that now includes eight Mexican cartels subject to the elevated legal designation.
The Juarez Cartel and Los Viagras were published in the Federal Register Thursday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio certified that both groups have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of acts threatening U.S. nationals, national security, foreign policy, or the American economy.
The Juarez Cartel has operated for decades along the Texas-Mexico border, controlling the Ciudad Juarez crossing point opposite El Paso. Its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, built a multi-million-dollar drug trafficking empire in the 1990s using light aircraft to move large shipments. Despite repeated leadership arrests over the years, the cartel maintained a sprawling smuggling infrastructure across the border.
Los Viagras operates out of Michoacan, a western Mexican state already home to two other cartel groups already on the terrorist list: Carteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana. The group emerged after a 2013-2014 farmers’ uprising that expelled the old cartels, only to be replaced by new ones. Los Viagras has since shifted to extortion, synthetic drug production, and alliances with trafficking networks that move product into the United States.
The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Los Viagras leader Nicolas Sierra Santana, who was indicted in Washington, D.C. in June 2025 on drug trafficking conspiracy charges.
The two new designations bring the total number of Mexican cartels on the FTO list to eight, joining the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, and the Northeast Cartel. The Trump administration began applying the terrorist label to Latin American criminal organizations in February 2025 to enable more aggressive legal action against cartel members and anyone aiding them.
