President Donald Trump’s unrelenting crackdown on drug cartels, paired with intense pressure on Mexico, is hitting the narcos where it hurts, according to a New York Times report published Sunday.
A wave of arrests and drug seizures has forced cartel bosses to scale back operations, lay off workers, and even go underground, as the Sinaloa Cartel—long a titan of the illicit trade—reels from the onslaught in its home state.
“You can’t be calm, you can’t even sleep, because you don’t know when they’ll catch you,” a senior Sinaloa Cartel operative told the NYT anonymously, capturing the paranoia gripping Mexico’s drug underworld. “The most important thing now is to survive.” The report paints a picture of a cartel empire rattled by Trump’s aggressive tactics, with labs shutting down and leaders ducking for cover as Mexico’s government, spurred by U.S. threats, unleashes a barrage of enforcement.
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Trump kicked off his second term with a bang, signing executive orders on day one to deploy troops to the southern border, label cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), restart border wall construction, and juice up a secretive drone program sniffing out fentanyl labs across Mexico.
The heat turned bilateral when Trump dangled 25% tariffs over Mexico’s head, demanding action on drugs and illegal immigration by Tuesday’s deadline. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, facing economic catastrophe, blinked—sending 10,000 National Guard troops to the border on February 5 and racking up eye-popping busts.
The results speak for themselves: 5 tons of meth, 453 kilos of cocaine, and 55 kilos of fentanyl seized since the Guard rolled out, per Mexican stats. A February haul in Sinaloa nabbed 440 pounds of meth—$40 million street value—while later that month, 29 cartel heavyweights, including a kingpin tied to the 1985 murder of a DEA agent, were extradited to the U.S.
“Trump established a deadline, and we are seeing … years [of progress] being done in a month,” Mexico City security analyst Jaime López told the NYT. “The government is sending a message that when it really wants to, it can exert that kind of pressure.”
Sheinbaum’s forces have nabbed nearly 900 suspects in Sinaloa since October, matching last year’s fentanyl haul in mere months. “We are combating organized crime groups, there can be no doubt about this,” she said at a February presser, doubling down on the offensive. The Sinaloa Cartel, a powerhouse behind America’s fentanyl crisis, is staggering as production dips in its heartland—a direct hit from Trump’s playbook.
The White House hasn’t signaled if Mexico’s efforts will nix the tariff threat, due Tuesday, but the numbers—backed by nearly 5 tons of seized meth and a flood of arrests—suggest a seismic shift. Illegal crossings have plummeted 95% since January, per CBP, amplifying Trump’s leverage. For now, drug lords are running scared, and the U.S.-Mexico border is feeling the squeeze of a policy reset that’s rewriting the rules of the game.
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