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US law enforcement announced the largest ever seizure of fentanyl precursor chemicals bound for Mexico and ultimately the US.
At a press conference in Houston, Texas, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro addressed reporters, in front of 1300 barrels of chemicals, which she said would require 24 18-wheelers to transfer to a storage facility.
“Imagine bodies where those barrels are,” she said.
The chemicals, of Chinese origin, were en route to the Sinaloa Cartel, to be refined into fentanyl.
Confiscation was reported to have taken place on the “high seas,” but officials refused to provide further comment on how they had been seized.
“If I told you, then [the cartel] would know, and that wouldn’t be good,” Pirro said.
Pirro said the seizure, as part of Operation Hydra, was made possible by President Trump’s designation of the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons also spoke to reporters. He noted that drug-related deaths in the US now stood at more than 100,000 a year, a “tragic and senseless” figure.
Lyons added that the seizure was the first time that a warrant of this kind was issued for “material support of terrorism.”
“Operation Hydra continues to be a tremendous success to bolster our efforts to combat drug trafficking,” Lyons said.
“Operations like this is key to our Homeland Security Task Force.”
CBP Field Operations Director Jud Murdock called the Sinaloa Cartel one of the “most violent and brutal terrorist organizations in the world.”
The Sinaloa Cartel activities are not merely criminal; they are acts of terror that threaten the safety and security of our nation,” Murdock said.
“By targeting the supply chains and disrupting their operations, we are sending a clear message: [The Department of Homeland Security] will not tolerate anyone or anything that wants to harm our community.”
This week, former cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia pleaded guilty to drug charges in federal court in Brooklyn.
Garcia, a longtime leader of the Sinaloa cartel, admitted to playing a role in a massive drug-trafficking operation.
Last month, President Trump made the decision to deploy an extra 4,000 US Marines to Latin American waters in order to fight the drug cartels.
According to two defense officials who spoke to CNN, the move is part of a broader strategy to ready the military to target the cartels, and had been in preparation for weeks.
A third source said the deployment was “aimed at addressing threats to US national security from specially designated narco-terrorist organizations in the region.”
The deployment includes the Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, reporting to US Southern Command.
One of the officials who spoke to CNN said the buildup was intended as a show of force, but it will also allow the US more options if President Trump does decide to strike the cartels.
The New York Times revealed that President Trump secretly authorized the US military to target the cartels.
“The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels,” The Times explained.
“U.S. military officials have started drawing up options for how the military could go after the groups, the people familiar with the conversations said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.”
Responding to the Times’ report, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum—whom President Trump has threatened with tariffs in order to get illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling under control—told reporters she did not believe the US military would strike within her country.
“There will be no invasion: That is rejected, absolutely rejected,” Sheinbaum said.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with troops.”
