US designates two more Mexican boxes as foreign terrorist organizations, including one on the Texas border

The US government has designated two other Mexican groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including one that operates near the US border.

They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a gang from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the US government’s gazette, published the article on Thursday.

They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations that the US considers terrorist groups, including The Sinaloa Cartel as well as Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, have also been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

President Trump began extending the terrorist label to Latin American companies in February 2025 to allow US authorities to take aggressive action against them or anyone the US deems to be aiding the groups. US military strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters have killed more than 200 people since last September.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras have committed acts of terrorism or pose a significant risk of committing acts that threaten the safety of the American people or national security, foreign policy, or the US economy.

The move represents an increase in pressure on the administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum following the indictment of 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as disputes over US operations in Mexico.

High pressure on the Texas border

The Juárez Cartel is one of the oldest drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, having for decades controlled the main crossing point in the central part of the Mexico-US border: Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas.

Both its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes – known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for smuggling large quantities of drugs in small planes in the 1990s – and the brothers and sons who followed him, turned the smuggling of tons of drugs into a multi-million dollar business. Despite the arrests of many of its leaders, the cartel and its associated gangs continued to control a major infrastructure for smuggling illegal goods into the US.

The Juárez Cartel is accused of the horrific 2019 murder of nine American women and children from the Mormon community.

According to Mexican analyst David Saucedo, the appointment is the key to allow the US to take drastic measures on the border, where two other groups both located at the end of the Texas border – the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel – were declared as terrorist organizations in February 2025.

The US is also targeting Michoacán

Los Viagras is a local cart in the western region Michoacánwhich is now home to two other criminal groups designated as terrorist organizations: Cárteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

Los Viagras emerged following the 2013-2014 peasant-led armed uprising that succeeded in ousting many of the old cartels, only to see them replaced by new ones. Earlier this year, an alleged associate of Los Viagras known as “El Botox” was arrested in connection with the killing of the leader of the lime farmers.

The cart is led by Nicolás Sierra Santana, whose name is “El Gordo.” He is charged in the District of Columbia with conspiracy to sell drugs, filed in June 2025. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

The group has changed allegiances and alliances to consolidate its control of the local region through fraud. It also produces synthetic drugs, which it sells to other cartels in the US

In 2024, prosecutors say Los Viagras set up their own makeshift internet antennas and told locals they had to pay to use the Wi-Fi service or be killed. Dubbed “narco-antennas” by local media, the cartel’s plan involves internet antennas set up in various cities built from stolen materials.