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Fox News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Violent Mexican drug gang's high ranking members sanctioned by Trump
The Trump administration sanctioned two high-ranking members of the Cartel del Noreste Wednesday — one of the most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, Fox News Digital has learned. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the two leaders of the organizations, formerly known as Los Zetas. Officials said the gang exerts "significant influence over the border region," especially near the Laredo, Texas point of entry. The first individual sanctioned was Miguel Angel de Anda Ledzema, a high-ranking member of Cartel del Noreste who oversees the procurement of guns and ammunition for the group. According to the Treasury Department, he has overseen payments to facilitators and straw purchasers in the United States and organized the delivery of firearms to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — straw purchasers who made false representations to secure firearms from American businesses, who officials say "fell victim to the cartel's lies." The Treasury Department said that one of the weapons purchased in this arms trafficking conspiracy was recovered after Cartel del Noreste attacked Mexico's army during a patrol in March 2024. The second individual sanctioned was Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, who was known as the second-in-command of Cartel del Noreste before his February arrest by Mexican authorities. The Treasury Department said he led an armed enforcement wing of the organization. He had been arrested in connection with attacks on the Mexican military and Mexican police. At the time of his arrest, he was in possession of a rifle, a handgun, 300 grams of methamphetamine and a package of 1,500 fentanyl pills. Officials said the new sanctions underscore the Trump administration's commitment to targeting Cartel del Noreste and other violent cartels involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking and other heinous crimes endangering the American people. "In working toward the total elimination of cartels to Make America Safe Again, the Trump Administration will hold these terrorists accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday. Cartel del Noreste "and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping, and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border." Bessent added, "We will continue to cut off the cartels' ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities." The new sanctions were imposed in coordination with Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Officials said the action was also closely coordinated with Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit. President of the National Border Patrol Council Paul Perez told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump's actions against cartels "fulfills the promise that he made when he stated time and time again that he would not allow the cartels to operate with impunity on our borders or within the interior of the United States." "These actions deal a significant blow and serves to send the message to all cartels, as well as to those who wish to do harm to Americans, that President Trump will not just talk about it, he will follow through," Perez said. "The amount of drugs, weapons and other contraband, to include the smuggling and trafficking of persons into and throughout the United States, created chaos and terror that the actions of the Trump administration is bringing to an end." "We fully and without hesitation support the actions taken by President Trump and his administration to take on the cartels," Perez added. The actions come after Trump directed cartels to be designated as foreign terrorist organizations. In April, the Justice Department hit a high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua on terrorism and international drug distribution charges — the first time the U.S. government has used terrorism charges to prosecute a member of the violent gang.
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
US sanctions two members of a Mexican drug trafficking group known as the Northeast Cartel
The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on two members of the Mexican drug trafficking organization Cartel del Noreste, the Northeast Cartel, which was formerly known as Los Zetas. The Treasury Department is targeting Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma, who allegedly oversees the procurement of guns and ammunition for the cartel, and Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, who was the second-in-command of the group before his February 2025 arrest by Mexican officials. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump 's administration designated Cartel del Noreste as a 'foreign terrorist organization,' along with seven other groups. The Republican president has made securing the U.S.-Mexico border among his top priorities. He has pledged to carry out mass deportations, send active-duty troops to the border and reach deals with some countries to take in more migrants. The Northeast Cartel is a remnant of the Zetas. Zetas were comprised of former Mexican military officers and began as an armed militaristic wing of the Gulf Cartel that eventually split and became its own trafficking organization. The Northeast cartel has retained a relatively small portion of what the Zetas once ruled. Its base is Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial port on the U.S.-Mexico border. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the administration will hold the cartels "accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence.' 'We will continue to cut off the cartels' ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities,' Bessent said. In March a group of Mexican nationals and former leaders of the Los Zetas were arraigned in Washington on charges that included engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that involved several murder conspiracies, conspiring to manufacture and distribute large quantities of cocaine and marijuana destined for the U.S.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
US sanctions two members of a Mexican drug trafficking group known as the Northeast Cartel
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on two members of the Mexican drug trafficking organization Cartel del Noreste, the Northeast Cartel, which was formerly known as Los Zetas. The Treasury Department is targeting Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma, who allegedly oversees the procurement of guns and ammunition for the cartel, and Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, who was the second-in-command of the group before his February 2025 arrest by Mexican officials. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump's administration designated Cartel del Noreste as a 'foreign terrorist organization,' along with seven other groups. The Republican president has made securing the U.S.-Mexico border among his top priorities. He has pledged to carry out mass deportations, send active-duty troops to the border and reach deals with some countries to take in more migrants. The Northeast Cartel is a remnant of the Zetas. Zetas were comprised of former Mexican military officers and began as an armed militaristic wing of the Gulf Cartel that eventually split and became its own trafficking organization. The Northeast cartel has retained a relatively small portion of what the Zetas once ruled. Its base is Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial port on the U.S.-Mexico border. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the administration will hold the cartels 'accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence.' 'We will continue to cut off the cartels' ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities,' Bessent said. In March a group of Mexican nationals and former leaders of the Los Zetas were arraigned in Washington on charges that included engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that involved several murder conspiracies, conspiring to manufacture and distribute large quantities of cocaine and marijuana destined for the U.S.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Border Czar Secretly Deported Two U.S. Citizen Children
Denisse Parra Vargas and her husband, Omar, had just dropped their three children—aged 9, 5 and 4—at school in Austin last Thursday morning when their car was pulled over by Texas state troopers, at least ostensibly because the license plate was expired. The younger two children—both boys—are U.S. citizens, but that did not dissuade the troopers from turning Parras Vargas and her husband over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as suspected undocumented immigrants. Families and their kids are fair game these days, as Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan has repeatedly made clear. 'Having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get out jail free card,' Homan told CBS News' Face the Nation last month. Denisse Parra Vargas, her husband Omar, and three children have all been removed from the country; the couple's youngest two boys are U.S. citizens. / Grassroots Leadership The father was sent to an ICE detention center then deported to Nuevo Laredo in Mexico, just across the border from Laredo, Texas. The mother was released after being fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet by the ICE Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). She was instructed to check in at the new Pflugerville processing center on Tuesday. 'She was told that if she showed up, then she would be eligible for asylum as well as a work permit,' a spokesperson for Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based criminal justice and immigration advocacy group, told the Daily Beast. The 39-year-old mother complied on the appointed day, bringing her kids along. 'Her understanding was that this was supposed to be a routine appointment,' the spokesperson said. 'It was not a threat.' But the mother and her kids then became the latest people to vanish into the immigration system and be held incommunicado. Grassroots Leadership and its legal team began an around-the-clock effort to locate them. 'We were just trying to figure out where she was,' the spokesperson said. 'ICE was not giving us information.' Grassroots Leadership repeatedly entered the woman's alien registration number into the online ICE detainee locator. 'She wasn't showing up,' the spokesperson said. Early Wednesday afternoon, Parra Vargas telephoned the Grassroots folks to say she had been deported and was in Reynosa, just across the border in her native Mexico, 15 miles from where her husband ended up. Their three kids were with her—two of them citizens. 'When she called from the other side of the border, she said that she signed a paper, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was,' the spokesperson told the Daily Beast. 'She did not understand what she was signing.' ICE operates under the command of Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary who has shown a fondness for going on raids and dressing as an ICE agent. / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images The legal team would no doubt have advised her that, as U.S. citizens, her younger two children could not be deported if she chose to place them with a responsible caretaker. But she does not seem to have been given the opportunity for an informed choice. 'She never had a chance to consult with anybody,' the spokesperson said. 'Any efforts from our end to be able to advocate for her release, or even for our legal team to be able to work on her release, none of that was possible because we weren't even able to locate her.' Much the same happened in two other instances in April involving a total of three children who were deported despite being U.S. citizens. Trump's In both cases, the kids were detained along with the mother during what had been presented as a routine check-in. A four-year-old U.S. citizen with metastatic cancer was deported to Honduras along with a seven year-old citizen sibling. The third U.S. citizen deportee last month was just two. When calling for mass deportations, President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homan speak of an invasion of killers and rapists, a horde he calls 'the worst of the worst.' The only violation of the law in this week's case involving the Parras Vargas family was one so minor it is usually used simply as a pretext to pull people over. 'Their mistake was not having their tags renewed,' the Grassroots Leadership spokesperson said. 'Both of them are loving parents. They have their three kids, and they're just trying to live their lives here in Austin.' Were it not for that car stop, their kids would have been in school on Tuesday. The younger two, who are as American as Trump or Miller or Homan or anyone else born in this country, would have been in kindergarten. 'Learning their numbers, learning how to spell,' the spokesperson said. 'It's May, so I'm assuming right now there's a lot of end of school celebrations... And instead of doing that right now, they are currently on the other side of the border, not sure what their new reality is.' Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has also spoken against the rights of citizen children to remain in the U.S. / Alex Wong / Getty Images The children had been hastily deported before their mother had an opportunity to understand their rights and make a terrible choice that could only be worse if you are cheated of an opportunity to make it. 'They were taken from their home, without the chance for them to even grab any of their belongings, like any toys, any clothes, anything that they might need for their day-to-day lives,' the spokesperson said. 'They don't have any of that, and that's just including the material possessions. There's also the long term psychological damage.' The spokesperson said the Grassroots Leadership legal team will continue to seek a remedy. She added, 'The reality is that this is not the first time that ICE has done this.' Miller has said that if you do not deport the kids they grow up to become adult immigrants. The Parra Vargas brothers will not be the last.
