In February, the U.S. State Department added eight groups, including powerful Mexican drug cartels, to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
According to RAND's Stavan Singh and David Luckey, this designation makes new legal and policy tools available that “could be the key to stopping transnational criminal organizations' ambitions for global expansion.”
For example, the U.S. government now has legal authority to prosecute people who aid or work for these organizations, even if these individuals are based outside U.S. borders. The terrorism designation also makes new criminal charges available, such as conspiracy, harboring terrorist organizations and, in extreme cases, the label of state sponsor of terrorism.
The designation might also encourage more countries to ramp up security cooperation with the United States. “No country wants to be viewed as a nonsecure state or a harbor for terrorist organizations,” Singh and Luckey say. If U.S. allies and partners enhance their own efforts to counter transnational criminal organizations—and work with Washington to do so—then this could open the door for a multinational coalition to address a top U.S. priority: combating synthetic opioid trafficking.
