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Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a ban on visas for 75 family members and associates arrested in the Sinaloa Cartel, extending the Trump administration’s attacks beyond drug traffickers to those who benefit from ill-gotten gains.
The Sinaloa Cartel was one of eight drug cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in February 2025. The classification allows the United States to pursue tougher criminal penalties and greater military intervention against drug cartels and their members.
“The Sinaloa Cartel traffics in illegal fentanyl, which the President has designated as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and other deadly drugs that harm American communities,” Rubio said in a statement. “Imposing visa restrictions on drug traffickers, their family members, and their associates and business associates will not only prevent them from entering our nation, but will also serve as a deterrent to further illegal activities.”
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Federal prosecutors have indicted a Sinaloa Cartel fentanyl producer accused of supplying Chapitos after he was arrested in Mexico. (Secretary of Security and Civil Protection of Mexico)
Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., applauded Rubio’s decision to impose visa restrictions on those linked to one of Mexico’s top drug cartels in X.
“For too long, narco-terrorists have built their fortunes on the pain and death of innocent Americans while their families have lived comfortably off blood money,” Salazar wrote. “The era of impunity is OVER. There is no more hiding behind money, power, or family ties. When you profit from cartel terror, consequences follow. America’s security comes first.”
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent participates in obtaining a search warrant at Healthplus Pharmacy for evidence related to an opioid pill, in Miramar, Florida, in August 2022. The DEA’s recent operations in Miami led to the seizure of $10 million in cryptocurrency linked to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. (Marco Bello/Reuters)
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the two largest drug cartels operating in Mexico, with tens of thousands of members operating in more than 40 countries. The operation of the Drug Enforcement Administration last summer led to the arrest of 600 people arrested in the Sinaloa Cartel. Over the course of a week, federal officials seized 714,707 counterfeit pills, 926 pounds of fentanyl powder, 4,870 pounds of methamphetamine, 16,466 pounds of cocaine and 36.5 pounds of heroin.
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The State Department backed its decision to bar Mexican drug cartel detainees from entering the United States with a 2021 executive order signed by former President Joe Biden titled “Imposing Penalties on Foreign Persons Involved in Drug Trafficking.” More than 325 people, including members of the Sinaloa Cartel, faced sanctions under the Biden-era order, according to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., arrives at the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Last September, the Trump administration sanctioned the Sinaloa Cartel group known as Los Mayos, and 15 companies linked to the group.
The Treasury Department has sanctioned more than 600 people linked to the Sinaloa Cartel and companies that played a “significant role” in the cartel’s operations, under the authority of the Foreign Narcotic Kingpin Designation Act of 2000 and Biden’s executive order of 2021.
