As the Justice Department pursues a historic racketeering indictment against drug cartels and gangs, President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor is suggesting such organizations could face military action and should be treated more like ISIS than the Cosa Nostra.
On Monday, the Justice Department, in a novel use of the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), targeted one such gang. That law was made famous for prosecutions of mafia leaders in the United States. Justice Department prosecutors charged 27 individuals associated with the violent Venezuelan international criminal organization Tren de Aragua and one of its offshoots for murders, sex trafficking, robberies, extortion, and drug dealing.
Trump’s National Security Advisor says the administration could go even further, claiming Tren de Aragua and other groups like it are more akin to the dangerous, jihadist terror group ISIS than organized crime.
“[These] groups aren’t like the mafia, they’re more like ISIS,” National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in an interview on the Just the News, No Noise TV show. “They are combating the Mexican army in full-on-fire fights. They’re shooting at aircraft.”
He explained, “They deserve all aspects of our national power to be used against them, to defend our sovereignty, to defend our borders, and that’s why you’ve seen the Defense Department under Secretary Hegseth and Trump’s leadership shift its assets to actually defend America.”
Since taking office earlier this year, President Trump ordered 10,000 active-duty troops to help secure the southern border and deployed two warships, military aircraft, and combat vehicles as tools to aid in operations. So far, the soldiers have helped border agents patrol the border and have carried out deportation flights of illegal migrants.