US targets Northeast Cartel leaders

The United States has shifted its focus to the Northeast Cartel, a brutal faction of Los Zetas led by the Treviño Morales family, which operates along the Texas border. Following the designation of the group as a terrorist organization by President Donald Trump in February 2025, U.S. security and financial agencies have escalated their offensive against the cartel's leadership and operations.

The U.S. Treasury has blacklisted more than a dozen high-ranking leaders and associates. Notable figures include Abdón Federico Rodríguez García, identified as the second-in-command responsible for drug trafficking, money laundering, and extortion, and Antonio Romero Sánchez, a plaza boss in Piedras Negras and Ciudad Victoria. Francisco Daniel Esqueda Nieto, in charge of tactical operations, and high-ranking lieutenant Ricardo González Sauceda have also been targeted.

In April, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two casinos in Tamaulipas used by the cartel for money laundering. Assets of Eduardo Javier Islas Valdez, involved in human smuggling, and Juan Pablo Penilla Rodríguez, a lawyer for "Z-40," were also blocked. Notably, human rights activist Raymundo Ramos Vázquez was also sanctioned.

Mexican authorities recently arrested José Antonio Cortés Huerta, a leader of a Northeast Cartel cell involved in fuel smuggling, in Nuevo León. This arrest is linked to the seizure of a ship carrying smuggled fuel in Tampico. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers the Northeast Cartel one of Mexico's most violent criminal groups, controlling the trafficking of migrants, weapons, fentanyl, and other drugs in border states like Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Coahuila.