The federal authorities has added seven new entities—5 drug cartels and two avenue gangs—to its checklist of terrorist organizations because it ramps up its legislation enforcement posture in response to the U.S. tariff risk.
The USA additionally designated the identical teams as international terrorist organizations final week.
The newly listed entities don’t match neatly beside different listed terrorist teams like al-Qaeda or ISIS, which have been recognized to launch assaults towards civilian and authorities targets for non secular and political motives.
These teams have, nevertheless, been utilizing excessive violence as they battle for territory and towards state forces, doing probably the most harm of their house nations.
Additionally they have a presence in Canada, the place they cooperate with native organized crime teams in illicit actions, together with cash laundering.
“I can confirm that we do have intelligence that cartels, different cartels, operate in Canada,” RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme mentioned on Feb. 20 throughout the terrorist itemizing announcement.
“There’s also strong intelligence that Canadians have actually moved to Mexico and South America to facilitate the transport of certain commodities into Canada,” he added.
Duheme mentioned the intelligence image for the listed avenue gangs is “very similar.”
Legal Intelligence Service Canada mentioned in its 2024 public report that members of Canada-based organized crime teams journey largely to Mexico, and to a lesser extent to Colombia, to coordinate with Mexican cartels.
“In addition to drugs, the role of Latin-American cartel-linked criminal organizations in Canada includes an increasing amount of money laundering, as well as human smuggling, to enable multiple avenues for illicit financial gain,” the report says.
Mexican Cartels
5 Mexican drug cartels had been listed as terrorist entities by Ottawa. As a collective phenomenon, they require little introduction, being well-known for wreaking havoc in Mexico with nice brutality in turf wars and assaults on state establishments, and because the most important conduit for cocaine from South America and artificial medication they manufacture from precursors obtained from China.
One of many higher recognized and oldest teams is the Sinaloa Cartel. Its former chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was caught in Mexico and later extradited to america, the place he was sentenced to life in jail in 2019.
Public Security Canada says Sinaloa operates in not less than 47 nations worldwide, together with in Canada. The cartel has hyperlinks to organizations which have lengthy been listed as terrorist entities, together with the narco-guerilla FARC in Colombia and Lebanese Hezbollah. It has employed ways comparable to utilizing armed drones for lethal aerial assaults.
“Sinaloa is one of the oldest criminal organizations in Mexico, and one of the most violent and prolific drug trafficking organizations in the world,” says Public Security.
The Jalisco Cartel New Technology (Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) makes use of comparable drone ways and has additionally hyperlinks to FARC. The cartel’s “use of armed drones and other tactics, such as public executions and kidnappings, against communities go beyond intimidation, as they seek to instill terror and depopulate communities to facilitate their takeover of territories and routes,” Public Security says.
This cartel is linked to a historic drug bust introduced by Toronto police in late January. Police seized 835 kg of cocaine for a avenue worth of over $83 million. Six people had been arrested, together with two Mexican nationals.
Quite a lot of smaller cartels joined forces to kind Cárteles Unidos (United Cartels), one other newly listed terrorist group, as a method to battle a turf warfare towards towards the CJNG. The Mexican army mentioned in December that two of its troopers had been killed by a Carteles Unidos explosive system meant for the CJNG.
The opposite listed cartels are Cártel del Golfo (CDG) and La Familia Michoacana. CDG has an vital presence in northern Mexico the place it runs medication and weapons trafficking.
A faction of CDG kidnapped 4 U.S. residents in 2023 who had crossed over to Mexico for a medical process. Two of them had been killed.
La Familia Michoacana, as its title implies, has its house base within the state of Michoacan, which borders the Pacific Ocean and is a brief distance from Mexico Metropolis. Michoacan additionally borders the state of Jalisco, a cartel hotbed. Numerous sources recommend the group misplaced affect after splintering. The factions Los Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) and La Nueva Familia Michoacana additionally seem in Public Security’s terrorist itemizing.
The USA additionally added the Cártel del Noreste (previously Los Zetas) to its checklist of terrorist entities.
Canada’s determination to checklist the crime teams as terrorist was introduced on Feb. 3, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump held a second name that day. The broad tariffs that the White Home had introduced had been placed on pause by Trump for 30 days to evaluate Canada’s border measures, together with a promise to checklist cartels as terrorist entities.
Road Gangs
Two teams not outlined as cartels and originating outdoors Mexico had been additionally listed as terrorist entities.
Tren de Aragua (TdA) originated as a jail gang within the state of Aragua, Venezuela. It has been increasing its actions within the Western Hemisphere lately. TdA grew to become extra extensively recognized in america in latest months after it overran an condo complicated in Colorado, and Trump used the case to focus on the issue of crime linked to unlawful immigration.
A video captured by safety digicam footage that went viral confirmed alleged armed members of the gang within the condo constructing going door to door.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was current on the launch of a substantive legislation enforcement operation earlier this month in Colorado focusing on over 100 members of Tren de Aragua. The operation had a restricted influence, nevertheless, with Homan afterward blaming media leaks for tipping off the gang members.
Days earlier, U.S. authorities carried out a raid at a separate Colorado location, a makeshift nightclub linked to TdA. Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided that not less than 41 people on the location had been in america illegally. The Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned it seized medication, a number of weapons, and a considerable amount of U.S. foreign money.
Together with involvement in typical legal actions comparable to drug trafficking, U.S. authorities say TdA is especially concerned in human smuggling and different illicit acts that prey on determined migrants.
On the usage of violence, Public Security Canada says the gang conducts kidnappings, contract killings, and hostage taking. The division additionally says TdA has used automobile bombs and explosives in its assaults, and factors to the alleged taking pictures of NYPD officers in June 2024 by its members.
MS-13
Mara Salvatrucha, also called MS-13, was shaped by Salvadoran immigrants to america who had been fleeing the civil warfare of their house nation. The gang has had a robust presence in El Salvador, albeit a diminishing one lately beneath the tenure of President Nayib Bukele. Following a gang bloodbath inflicting 87 deaths in 2022, Bukele declared a state of emergency that was used for a serious crackdown towards MS-13 and different gangs.
Public Security Canada says MS-13 advanced from a avenue gang right into a “criminal-economic-military-political power.” It says the group has engaged in widespread focused killings of legislation enforcement and state officers and has established military-style coaching camp for its members.
There have been reported actions of MS-13 in Canada, together with a drive-by taking pictures north of Toronto in 2023, for which three males had been charged.
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