Co-opted Drug Cartels Are Enemy Hybrid Warfare Operations

First responder and paramedic Carley Morgan holds a sign protesting Mexican drug cartels at a press conference on the border crisis in Phoenix on Jan. 26, 2023. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Commentary

In February of this year, 21 U.S. states asked the Biden administration to officially label Mexican drug cartels terrorist organizations. The states’ attorneys general making the request made this argument: designating Mexican criminal cartels as FTOs, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, allows the United States to use more than that federal police, state police, and judicial power to confront them. As FTOs, federal military and intelligence assets enter the fray.