Drug cartels, which President Donald Trump has designated as "global terrorist" organizations, are now operating worldwide, Frank Tarentino, the Drug Enforcement Agency's agent in charge in New York City, told Newsmax's Jaeson Jones in an exclusive interview.
"We know that the cartels are operating in 65 countries around the world, and we're working tirelessly every single day with our prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's offices and all of our partners in the federal government to bring them to justice here in New York and across the DEA," Tarentino said in the interview airing on Newsmax's "Sunday Report."
New York City's most dominant cartels, he added, are the New York City are the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG, or Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and the sales of synthetic opioids, specifically fentanyl, are the major threats being faced.
"Fentanyl is the greatest threat we have ever faced in drug law enforcement," he said. "It's primarily because of the precursor chemicals that originate in India and China that are smuggled into Mexico and then synthesized in these superlabs and then processed into both fentanyl powder and pills that are flowing into the United States and killing Americans at catastrophic and record rates."
The New York rates, he added, are "pretty consistent" with what the rest of the United States is seeing.
"That is, 70% of our overdose deaths are directly related to fentanyl, and roughly 30% of that is related to methamphetamine," said Tarentino. "We've indicted people out of mainland China. We've targeted people in Mexico, and we've been successful in bringing some of them to justice."
Tarentino had a message for the cartels and transnational criminal organizations that are watching the response to their behavior.
"We are one team with one purpose and one mission,' he said. "We have a shared responsibility and a common purpose to eliminate the cartels, the Sinaloa and CJNG, and any other cartel that's influencing and causing deaths in the United States of America. We will protect the homeland, and we will hold you accountable."
Jones further reported that it's a "new world" when it comes to fighting the cartels.
"If you have been wondering why you have seen Gitmo opened up, if you wonder why the collaboration with the El Salvadorian president to take back those MS-13 members that have been flooding into our country for decades, and why coordination around the world is now starting, that's because they're building capacity into the cartels and criminal organizations watching," Jones reported.
And Tarentino, he said, is promising "total elimination" of the cartels.
"That is the policy moving forward of this government," said Jones. "We're going to see a lot of sweeping changes in operations, not only domestically but globally."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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