Argentina designates Mexico's CJNG cartel a ‘terrorist organisation’

President Javier Milei’s government announced Thursday that it has designated Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) as a “terrorist organisation,” following in the footsteps of the United States, its geopolitical north star.

In a statement, Milei’s office stated that the measure falls “within the framework of international commitments undertaken by Argentina in the fight against terrorism and its financing.”

The move reaffirms the “commitment to the fight against organised crime,” it added.

According to a statement, the inclusion of the CJNG on Argentina’s Public Register of Persons and Entities Linked to Acts of Terrorism and their Financing (RePET) “enables the application of financial sanctions and operational restrictions aimed at limiting the capacity for action of these criminal organisations and their members.”

It also “protects Argentina’s financial system from being used for illicit purposes” and strengthens cooperation with other countries that have designated this cartel a “terrorist organisation,” the statement added.

Local media said the decision was taken jointly by the Presidency, the Foreign Ministry, National Security Ministry and SIDE intelligence secretariat.

In February 2025, the United States designated the CJNG and six other transnational criminal groups from Mexico, El Salvador and Venezuela as “foreign terrorist organisations”, as part of the offensive by the administration of US President Donald Trump against drug-trafficking.

CJNG, the Spanish acronym by which the group is known, is a major supplier of fentanyl, meth and cocaine to US markets.

In its statement on Thursday, Milei’s office said the cartel had emerged in July 2010 and grown into one of the most powerful drug trafficking organisations in the world, with a presence in Mexico, the United States and at least 40 other countries, including Argentina.

Its leader and founder, Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, was killed last month in an operation in Mexico supported by the US intelligence services, which had offered US$15 million for his capture.

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei’s government has designated a number of overseas entities as terrorist organisations, including branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, the Palestinian jihadist group Hamas and Iran’s Quds Force.

– TIMES/AFP/NA