Perhaps the most significant development for companies operating in Latin America is the Trump administration's focus on the "elimination of cartels." This has included designating nearly 20 cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including 13 cartels and TCOs operating specifically in Latin America (see our updated maps here). The Department of Justice (DOJ) is playing a critical role in this campaign against cartels and other TCOs (we recently discussed the Department of the Treasury's recent efforts here). As discussed previously, these designations create potential civil and criminal liability under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for companies and individuals providing material support to or aiding and abetting FTOs, and also create significant corruption, economic sanctions, and money laundering risks, changing the risk profiles for companies operating in the region.

Given that the DOJ has repeatedly emphasized its intention to investigate and prosecute cases concerning the provision of material support to FTOs under the ATA and other statutes, we fully expect to see an uptick in these types of cases. Various cases and announcements during the first 10 months of the administration suggest that DOJ enforcement targeting cartel activity will be aggressive. Below are a number of recent developments that provide helpful guidance on what we can expect from the DOJ: 

• Coordinated, multi-agency enforcement efforts. To date, one of the most notable observations of the second Trump administration is the extensive coordination between enforcement agencies. The DOJ, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others, are working collaboratively in pursuing the "total elimination" strategy in lockstep. This may be because "total elimination" of cartels and TCOs is clearly at the top of the priority list. Thus far in the second Trump administration, we have seen FinCEN issue unprecedented orders against financial institutions in Mexico believed to be primary money laundering concerns, OFAC sanction several cartels and their members throughout Latin America, ICE and DHS assist in the seizure of drug precursors, and the DOJ indict and extradite high-ranking cartel members, among many other efforts. This coordination in the enforcement strategy will likely result in an aggressive wave of investigations and additional enforcement actions.
• Pemex FCPA case alleging cartel ties. In the DOJ's June 2025 FCPA Guidelines (discussed here), which served to end the February 2025 "pause" on FCPA enforcement, the agency stated its intention to prioritize foreign bribery cases with links to cartels. It appears that the Guidelines are already making an impact on the DOJ's enforcement efforts. For example, in August 2025, the DOJ charged two Texas residents for allegedly paying bribes to Pemex officials to obtain contracts from Pemex. The indictment does not discuss links to cartels, but the detention memorandum does suggest that one of the defendants had ties to cartels. The assertion of cartel links has been a point of contention. The DOJ initially asserted the links in its first press release but removed the reference shortly thereafter, which caused defense counsel to file a motion to dismiss, claiming that the DOJ, which had been investigating the case for several years prior to the start of the second Trump administration, invented the cartel ties solely to align with administration priorities. Regardless of how the issue ultimately plays out, it strongly suggests that DOJ is focused on pursuing foreign bribery cases with cartel links. We discuss the types of risk scenarios that could fall into that category here. 
• DOJ Acting Assistant Attorney General (AAG) provides cartel-related enforcement data. In September 2025, at an Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) Conference, Acting AAG Matthew Galeotti provided the following statistics on DOJ's anti-cartel efforts: 
  • Since February, the DOJ has taken custody of 50 cartel bosses and high-level targets, including indicting, arresting, and extraditing these cartel members. As part of this discussion, Galeotti highlighted the guilty plea of one of the co-founders of the Sinaloa Cartel, a designated FTO, to charges that carry a minimum life sentence. 
  • The DOJ charged 30 individuals for laundering money for drug trafficking organizations. Relatedly, the DOJ is focused on prosecuting organizations that facilitate laundering of illicit narcotics proceeds, such as TD Bank, which was indicted last year. Galeotti emphasized that the DOJ is prosecuting individuals tied to the TD Bank prosecution.
  • The DOJ expanded its whistleblower program and focused on reports related to stated priorities. In May 2025, the DOJ added corporate violations related to cartels and TCOs as a new subject area for which whistleblower may be eligible for awards. Galeotti explained that in four months, the DOJ has received "313 whistleblower tips and found 120 of them to warrant further investigation, including a number of tips relating to our priority areas – procurement fraud, trade fraud, and sanctions evasion." These statistics suggest that the whistleblower program is working as intended, and given these numbers, we can expect to see an increase in these types of investigations.
• The DOJ seeking assistance from companies. In his ACAMS speech, AAG Galeotti also appealed to the private sector to self-report questionable conduct and cooperate, calling the private sector the first line of defense, invoking the "Three Lines of Defense" corporate governance model companies employ for fraud protection. This appeal suggests that, consistent with prior DOJ assertions, the Criminal Division remains focused on incentivizing companies to self-disclose and cooperate, investigating matters quickly, and bringing them to a swift resolution. Galeotti said: "Many of you in this room are the first line of defense. You see the suspicious transactions, you know when red flags are raised. When that happens, I encourage your institutions to contact us. The faster we can move, the faster we can stop the flow of funds and choke off the funding that allows these illicit networks to prosper." This should encourage companies to investigate potential misconduct as soon as practicable and assess next steps, including whether self-disclosure is appropriate. 
• Latin America's first FTO-related civil forfeiture action. Previously, we discussed the significant authority that an FTO designation gives DOJ to seize and take title to assets linked to FTOs, even when there are minimal jurisdictional links to the U.S. The DOJ recently applied this authority to Latin America cartel-related conduct for the first time. On September 3, 2025, the DOJ announced that it had seized 300,000 kilograms of the precursor chemical used to produce methamphetamine en route to labs controlled by the Sinaloa cartel. The press release claims that this seizure was possible because the Sinaloa cartel was designated as an FTO. While such authority was exercised regularly in the past in connection with FTOs outside of Latin America, such as seizing oil connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, utilizing this authority against cartels highlights new risks in the region. We expect to see an increase in civil forfeiture activity, in large part because the designation of cartels as FTOs allows the DOJ to apply the terrorism forfeiture statute, widely considered one of the broadest forfeiture statutes the DOJ can apply. One can easily imagine the U.S. government taking steps to seize products from trucks moving fentanyl, ships carrying agriculture products controlled by cartels, or the diesel black market (huachicol) in Mexico, discussed here, where cartels are present.

As these developments indicate, the DOJ's enforcement strategy continues to be focused on cartel and TCOs and companies and individuals that may provide support to cartels and TCOs. While we currently have limited data points to predict future DOJ activity, what we do know suggests that the DOJ – in coordination with several other agencies – is prepared to direct resources to combat cartels and TCOs, particularly those operating in Latin America. In light of the DOJ's enforcement focus, companies operating in Latin America would be wise to review their compliance programming and internal controls to ensure that they have adequately considered risks and investigated potential misconduct associated with cartel and TCO activity. 

For more information, please contact:

Matteson Ellis, mellis@milchev.com, 202-626-1477

Maria Elena Lapetina, mlapetina@milchev.com, 202-626-1586

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