(The Center Square) – Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders with narco-terrorism and material support of terrorism for trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin into the United States. It is the first time prosecutors charged alleged drug traffickers with terrorism-related charges.
Prosecutors charged Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering as key leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel that is believed to be the world’s largest known fentanyl production network, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors also charged five other BLO leaders with drug trafficking and money laundering.
The indictment comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February.
“The Sinaloa Cartel is a complex, dangerous terrorist organization and dismantling them demands a novel, powerful legal response,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “Their days of brutalizing the American people without consequence are over – we will seek life in prison for these terrorists.”
BLO is considered one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations that operates in Mexico, engaging in shootouts, murders, kidnappings, torture and violent collection of drug debts to sustain its operations, according to the Justice Department and court records. The Beltran Leyva faction controls numerous territories and plazas throughout Mexico – including Tijuana – and operates with violent impunity, trafficking in deadly drugs, threatening communities, and targeting key officials, all while making millions of dollars from their criminal activities, according to the Justice Department.
Pedro Inzunza Noriega works closely with his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, to produce and aggressively traffic fentanyl into the United States, prosecutors alleged. Court documents allege that together the father and son lead one of the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks in the world. Over the past several years, they have trafficked tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl into the United States, according to the Justice Department.
On Dec. 3, 2024, Mexican law enforcement raided multiple locations in Sinaloa that are controlled and managed by the father and son and seized more than 1.65 tons of fentanyl – the largest seizure of fentanyl in the world.
On his second day in office, Trump issued an executive order designating Mexican cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, Salvadoran La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), as FTOs and specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs) under the U.S. Constitution, Immigration and Nationality Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” Trump’s order stated. “They functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States. In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society.”
