I thank the Minister of Security of Canada, Gary Anandasangaree, for the telephone conversation this afternoon, where we held a frank and productive dialogue to strengthen bilateral security between Mexico and Canada. We advance on shared priorities and the Action Plan… https://t.co/sO9SYRmVNK
— Omar H Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch)
December 15, 2025
Trump tightens actions against cartels
President Donald Trump signed an executive order this Monday that classifies fentanyl, a powerful opioid that has caused a health crisis in the United States, as a “weapon of mass destruction.”
“No bomb causes the damage that this is doing: between 200,000 and 300,000 people die every year, that we know of,” Trump said during an event in the Oval Office.
The president signed the decree after a medal ceremony to soldiers who support surveillance tasks on the border with Mexico.
The order signed by Trump notes that illicit fentanyl is more like a chemical weapon than a narcotic.
”Two milligrams, an almost imperceptible amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitute a lethal dose,” he points out.
Trump says the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl, carried out primarily by organized criminal networks, ”threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and on our borders.”
The production and sale of fentanyl by foreign terrorist organizations and cartels finances the operations of these entities – which include assassinations, terrorist acts and insurgencies around the world – and allows them to erode the internal security and well-being of the United States, says the president.
According to Trump, the possibility of fentanyl being used as a weapon for large-scale, concentrated terrorist attacks by organized adversaries is a serious threat to the United States.
Following Trump’s signature, the heads of the corresponding executive departments and agencies must take appropriate measures to implement it and eliminate the threat of illicit fentanyl and its main chemical precursors to the United States.
The order states that the US Attorney General’s Office must immediately begin investigations and prosecutions into fentanyl trafficking, including criminal charges as appropriate, aggravating penalties and sentence variations.
For their part, the Secretaries of State and Treasury must take appropriate actions against relevant assets and financial institutions in accordance with the law applicable to those who participate in or support the manufacture, distribution and sale of illicit fentanyl and its main precursor chemicals.
The Secretary of War and the Attorney General’s Office will determine whether the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its impact on the United States justify the provision of resources from the Department of War to the Department of Justice to assist in the enforcement of title 18, United States Code, pursuant to 10 USC 282.
The Defense will update all guidelines on the response of the Armed Forces to chemical incidents in the national territory, including the threat of illicit fentanyl.
Trump designated Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations when he returned to the White House.
In recent weeks, the president has left open the possibility of attacking members of the cartels in the territories of Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.
