The Trump administration has tapped the Treasury Department to track down and halt the flow of money to foreign drug cartels.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender says the federal agency is choking off the cash flow that powers cartels’ human and drug smuggling operations by designating them as terrorists, he explained to The Daily Wire.
“One of the most important things that the president did upon coming into office was to declare a number of the narco groups terrorist organizations,&#8221; Faulkender told The Daily Wire. &#8220;What that does is it unleashes additional authorities at Treasury for us to better target some of the financial activities that these cartels are engaging in.&#8221;
Faulkender told The Daily Wire that the agency’s moves are cutting into the cartels’ flow of money, disincentivizing their human smuggling and drug-running operations.
“It&#8217;s one thing to have our partners at [the Department of Homeland Security] work on stopping the flow of people and drugs, but we can also use our financial tools to go after the money,” the Treasury official explained. “If the money is not flowing back south, then there&#8217;s less of an incentive to bring the drugs and the guns and some of the illicit activity up to the north.”
“Since the president took office, we&#8217;ve engaged in five different actions going after nine different entities for a total of 16 individuals,” he noted.
The Treasury Department unveiled sanctions on “two high-ranking members of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste,” a foreign terrorist organization formerly known as Los Zetas.
Cartel del Noreste “and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping, and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent charged. “We will continue to cut off the cartels’ ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities.”
That move follows the Treasury Department&#8217;s March announcement that it was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-treasury-dept-launches-sanctions-targeting-sinaloa-cartel">imposing sanctions</a> on six individuals and seven organizations believed to be laundering money for the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s most notorious criminal organizations and a federally-designated foreign terror organization.
“We leveled sanctions against six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering operation, cutting off financing for these evil people,” Bessent said at the time. “Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise, only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today.”
Treasury also hit Brink’s Global Services, which specializes in transporting funds and other valuables for banks and other clients, with a <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-announces-37000000-civil-money-penalty-against-brinks-global-services-usa">$37 million civil penalty</a>, alleging that the company moved money across the southern border without following anti-money laundering regulations. The company’s violations, the Treasury Department says, exposed “the U.S. financial system to a heightened risk of money laundering, including from narcotics trafficking and other illicit activity.”
Faulkender says the Trump administration isn’t just launching a whole-of-government approach to combat the cartels’ drug and human smuggling, but is also pushing the Mexican government to track and penalize the flow of cartel money.
“The president imposed tariffs on the Mexican government and on products that are coming in from Mexico to elicit participation and cooperation from the Mexican government, and so we are seeing the Mexican government willing to work with us to go after these financial networks that are enriching the cartels,” he told The Daily Wire, adding that the government is “monitoring the money flows, tracking it down, either putting a complete stop to it and, and seizing that money, or at the very least, making it a lot more expensive for them to move that money around and try to deter them from engaging in these kinds of actions.”

Bank notes part of a seizure of more tha

EXCLUSIVE: Treasury Official Lays Out How Trump Is Choking Off Cash Flow To Cartels

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To prove that Donald Trump is a very mean person while journalists are totally compassionate and loving, CNN has aired a sympathetic interview with a member of a Mexican drug cartel. 
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Oh, Klavan, you marvelous merchant of magical mirth, only you could invent a scenario in which a Left-wing news outlet sinks so deeply into the bubbling tarpit of its own twisted political hatred that the lunatic idea of legitimizing a death-mongering gangster could wend its way through every level of internal decision-making without one voice of even semi-decency speaking up to say, “Wait, wait, we can’t allow our childish demonization of our political opponents to twist our souls into gnarled burnt offerings fit only for the altars of hell so that we actually call evil good and good evil right there on cable TV in front of our six or seven viewers.”
But no, my friends, I am not making this up.
CNN girl reporter Shapely Nudnick actually traveled to a Mexican hideout where she spoke sympathetically with a masked member of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, whose former boss El Chapo was said to be personally responsible for the deaths of over 34,000 people.
Ms. Nudnick, winner of this year’s Pulitzer prize for most attractive backside, fetchingly leaned forward and asked the masked gangster – and as God is my witness, I am not making this up, “According to the Trump Administration, you are a terrorist … What do you make of that?”
The masked member of the murderous cartel responded, “I don’t like to get overly emotional because my job depends on inspiring terror in anyone who tries to stand in my way, but I must be honest and tell you this slur from your President Trump hurt my feelings very deeply. I am just a man trying to make a living in this crazy world, and when I heard I had been labeled a terrorist, my hands were literally shaking so hard I could barely shove a screwdriver into the face of one of my rivals. I respect President Trump, and respect is very important because people who don’t return my respect are often found inside plastic bags in several different locations. But a man must eat and, to be fair, our customers are mostly in the United States and as any good businessman will tell you, you have to go where the customers are and then slowly poison them to death. I hope the American people will push back against this insult, and if they don’t, I know where they live.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a> </h3>
CNN has proudly announced that this interview is only the first in a new series of self-degrading acts of pure evil that will appear over the course of the Trump Presidency, and they’ve been airing tantalizing previews of future episodes. In one clip, Shapely Nudnik bravely travels to an undisclosed elementary school to interview a pedophile teacher who says, “I think it’s very cruel for people to demonize someone they don’t even know with ugly words like pervert and evil scum-sucking hell-fiend. I just thank heavens I belong to a teachers’ union where they support the idea that minor attracted persons can work at an elementary school. After all, that’s where the children are, not to mention the porn.” 
In another clip, Miss Nudnick scores an interview with former Nazi torture doctor Joseph Mengele who says, “It’s true I used to perform grotesque and unspeakable medical experiments on children, but I’ve totally reformed, and now I’m supplying kids with gender affirming care, because I’ve had a lot of practice, and that’s what I’m good at.” 
In other Left-wing media news, the Pulitzer committee has awarded its prize for photography to a picture of a bullet flying at President Trump’s head. Committee Chairman Thaddeus Foul-heart said, “We know that other photo of a wounded Trump raising his fist with the American flag in the background is the single most iconic image of the first quarter of this century, but that photo inspired love and admiration for our president, whereas we were rooting for the bullet.”
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Woman Underground.</a>” His most recent nonfiction release is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=nMYjR&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=7a8J3&amp;pd_rd_r=5791ea0f-6d96-4732-9d6a-3a4e6b348bb5&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness.</a>” (May 2025, Zondervan/HarperCollins).

CNN Airs Heartfelt Sit-Down With Masked Cartel Hitman

Andrew Klavan

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interview

Legacy Media

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Terrorism

CNN faced widespread mockery on social media over the weekend after interviewing a masked Sinaloa Cartel gangster who, rather than criticizing President Trump&#8217;s terrorist designation as seemingly expected, expressed “respect” for the commander-in-chief for &#8220;looking out for his people.&#8221;
The interview, aired Saturday, featured CNN correspondent Isobel Yeung questioning a heavily disguised cartel member in an undisclosed hideout in Mexico, according to the New York Post.
“According to the Trump administration, you are a terrorist. … What do you make of that?” Yeung asked.
Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/designating-cartels-and-other-organizations-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations-and-specially-designated-global-terrorists/">designated</a> the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in a January 20 executive order, with the State Department <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/">writing</a> that the cartel is “one of the largest producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other illicit drugs to the United States.”
The masked gangster, wearing sunglasses and latex gloves to conceal his identity, initially <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/05/us-news/cnn-roasted-for-interviewing-sinaloa-cartel-gangster-asking-how-he-felt-about-trump-labeling-him-a-terrorist/">responded</a>, &#8220;Well, the situation is ugly, but we have to eat.&#8221;
When asked what he would say directly to Trump, the cartel member didn’t take the bait.
&#8220;My respect. According to him, he&#8217;s looking out for his people,&#8221; the gangster stated, adding, &#8220;But the problem is the consumers are in the United States. If there weren&#8217;t any consumers, we would stop.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
CNN is now sitting down with foreign terrorist drug traffickers to ask how they feel about Trump’s policies and being labeled terrorists. UNREAL. <a href="https://t.co/xNlMTtPZg7">pic.twitter.com/xNlMTtPZg7</a>
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1919084379009163745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
Social media erupted with mockery of CNN&#8217;s apparent attempt to elicit anti-Trump commentary from a member of a violent drug trafficking organization.
&#8220;CNN tried to create a scandal and accidentally gave Trump a campaign ad. You can’t script this kind of desperation,&#8221; one user <a href="https://x.com/wakeninq2/status/1918538833303408845">remarked</a>.
&#8220;Unbelievably, CNN gives Sinaloa cartel member a chance to throw a pity party about being labeled a terrorist, but the cartel member tells them President Trump is just rightly &#8216;looking after his people,'&#8221; another social media user <a href="https://x.com/dotconnectinga/status/1919241365700931675">pointed out</a>.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) <a href="https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1919247712173670591">suggested</a>, &#8220;Let them [CNN] live under the rule of foreign terrorist drug traffickers for a few months. And then tell us how they feel.&#8221;
A February 20 State Department <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/">fact sheet</a> on the terrorist designation for the cartel writes that it uses “violence to murder, kidnap, and intimidate civilians, government officials, and journalists.”
A Foreign Terrorist Organization classification expands federal authorities&#8217; ability to combat these criminal enterprises through financial sanctions, enhanced prosecutions, and immigration restrictions.

CNN Ruthlessly Mocked After Interview With Cartel Member Backfires

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EXCLUSIVE: Treasury Official Lays Out How Trump Is Choking Off Cash Flow To Cartels

CNN Airs Heartfelt Sit-Down With Masked Cartel Hitman

CNN Ruthlessly Mocked After Interview With Cartel Member Backfires