Washington, D.C. — The United States Department of the Treasury on July 15, 2026, added the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, expanding the roster of Mexican criminal groups deemed threats to U.S. national security and economic stability.
The two groups join six other Mexican cartels that were officially designated as terrorist organizations in February 2025. The full list now includes:
- Juárez Cartel
- Los Viagras
- Sinaloa Cartel
- Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)
- Northeast Cartel
- La Nueva Familia Michoacana
- Gulf Cartel
- Carteles Unidos
With the new designations, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) activated financial mechanisms to block the groups’ assets in the United States and impose sanctions on individuals linked to these cartels.
The Juárez Cartel, founded in the 1970s by Pablo Acosta Villarreal, is currently believed to be led by Juan Pablo Ledezma. Its known factions include La Línea, Los Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (OVCF), and Barrio Azteca. According to the DEA, the organization is one of the nine most significant Mexican criminal groups posing the greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States. It primarily traffics heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana from Mexico through the El Paso, Texas corridor. The cartel and its leaders have been the subject of multiple indictments in the United States.
