MS-13 Among 8 Groups Designated as Terrorists
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has designated eight Latin American groups, including one with a history in the Santa Maria Valley, as foreign terrorist organizations.
The designation includes Tren de Aragua in Venezuela, MS-13 in El Salvador, and six Mexico-based groups.
Trump has prioritized securing the U.S.-Mexico border during his presidency, advocating for mass deportations, deploying active-duty troops to the border, and negotiating agreements with some countries to accept more migrants.
Labeling these organizations as "foreign terrorist organizations" is unusual, as the designation is typically reserved for groups such as al-Qaida or the Islamic State that use violence for political purposes. Latin American cartels and gangs are primarily driven by financial motives, engaging in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, and territorial expansion through violence.
The Trump administration argued that these groups' international reach and criminal activities justified the designation.
When it comes to prosecuting members of the groups, San Luis Obispo’s district attorney says it does not have an impact on how his office would prosecute individuals.
“It will not change how we prosecute under California State law, any crimes committed by cartel organizations," said San Luis Obispo DA Dan Dow. "I can tell you in San Luis Obispo county already today, we are very tough on gang members."
“What the designation does, is it makes it now a focus of the federal law enforcement agencies to be able to go after anybody financially supporting any one of those designated organizations engaging in commerce with them, banking with them, if any of the terrorist organizations have money in the United States banks or other banks that have agreements with the United States government, that money could be seized," said Dow.
The goal of the label is to protect the American people according to a statement from the U.S. State Department, but Dow says it also takes away from them financially.
“The goal and the focus in my opinion of that executive order and that designation is to take away their financial resources of those organizations so they can’t do the terror work that they want to do in our country and across the world.”
The Santa Barbara District Attorney's office responded by saying “The US State Department’s designation of certain groups as Specially Designated Global Terrorists does not abdicate a local District Attorney’s authority to prosecute individuals, including gang members, for violations of state law. The California gang statutes are modeled after federal RICO statutes."
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday, ahead of the designations' publication, that "if that decree has to do with extraterritorial actions (in Mexico), those we do not accept."
However, she expressed support for advancing joint investigations with the United States.
"If they make this decree to investigate even more in the United States the money laundering and the criminal groups that operate in the United States, that carry out those drug sales, it’s very good," Sheinbaum said. "What we do not accept is the violation of our sovereignty."
Over the years, Trump has frequently highlighted MS-13 and Tren de Aragua in political speeches and public remarks.
Mara Salvatrucha, more commonly known as MS-13, is notorious for brutal violence and street-level drug sales.
In 2022, five MS-13 members were sentenced to multiple life terms without parole after being convicted of several killings committed between 2013 and 2016 in California's Santa Maria Valley.
Authorities indicted 18 defendants in July 2016 following their arrests during Operation Matador, a three-year investigation led by the Santa Maria Police Department that culminated in a coordinated law enforcement effort on March 2, 2016.
AP News contributed to this article.
