Mexican drug cartels are reportedly worried about their futures with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
According to a seemingly sympathetic report from the New York Times, the cartels are expressing fears that their business model is at risk because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels.
The report states:
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.
Since returning to office in January, President Trump has taken an aggressive stance against Mexican drug cartels, designating them as foreign terrorist organizations on his first day in office.
Another important aspect of their strategy has been the closing off of the southern border, which drug cartels exploit to help traffic billions of dollars of drugs into the United States.
Just this week, Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports, citing the government’s failure to curb fentanyl trafficking.
The administration is also exploring the possibility of unilateral military operations, including special forces deployments and even targeted air strikes.
“’All options will be on the table’, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a recent interview with Fox News.
Such efforts are facing pushback from the Mexican government, with President Claudia Sheinbaum recently proposing changes to the country’s constitution that would try and block any investigation or military action by foreign entities without permission from her government.
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