The U.S. Department of Justice charged a Mexican cartel member Friday, using a new terrorism designation for the first time – providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment in the Western District of Texas, alleging Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez, 39, provided grenades to Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).
President Trump, in February, signed an executive order designating CJNG and seven other cartels: Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos as foreign terrorist organizations.
Mr. Trump said cartels and other transnational organizations "threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere." House and Senate Democrats urged top Trump administration officials to unlock additional legal tools that would allow the administration to disrupt the cartels' financial networks and impose harsher penalties on entities that provide material support to them.
Federal law makes it a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and other fines to provide material support to cartels. The indictment filed against Navarro-Sanchez alleges that the Mexican national, in addition to conspiring to provide grenades to the cartel she also trafficked firearms and humans, smuggled bulk cash, and trafficked drugs on its behalf.
"U.S. law enforcement is turning up the pressure to crack down on unlawful immigration practices and to dismantle the smuggling of illicit drugs and firearms," said acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas in a statement.
Navarro-Sanchez allegedly conspired with two co-defendants, Luis Carlos Davalos-Lopez, 27, and Gustavo Castro-Medina, 28, both of Mexico. Davalos-Lopez is charged with conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens into and transport aliens in the United States, straw purchasing and firearms trafficking.
Castro-Medina is charged with straw purchasing and firearms trafficking, conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Cara Tabachnick