MenuOn his inauguration day, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.” This illustrates the new administration’s emphasis on the global fight against organized crime, with a primary focus on Latin America.
In addition to historically known avenues of illicit revenue generation, such as drug and human smuggling, organized crime groups are now penetrating formal economic sectors, including the fuel industry, and engaging in illicit fuel trafficking. While the Executive Order calls for the elimination of groups such as Tren de Aragua (TdA) and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), this is made far more difficult with no measures to remove their presence from lucrative sectors, such as fuel smuggling. While limited progress has been made in Latin America, an effective approach may lie in successful technological measures employed overseas.
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