The U.S. government sanctioned two high-ranking members of the Cartel del Noreste in May 2025 in an effort to cut off the group’s financing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, above, said the U.S. would continue to destroy the cartel’s power to wreak violence. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The United States imposed sanctions in May 2025 on two members of the Mexican drug trafficking organization Cartel del Noreste, the Northeast Cartel, which formerly was known as Los Zetas. The U.S. Treasury Department is targeting Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma, who allegedly oversees the procurement of guns and ammunition for the cartel, and Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, who was the second-in-command of the group before his February 2025 arrest by Mexican officials.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration designated Cartel del Noreste as a foreign terrorist organization, along with seven other groups. Trump has made securing the Mexico-U.S. border one of his top priorities.
The Northeast Cartel is a remnant of the Zetas. Zetas were comprised of former Mexican military officers and began as an armed militaristic wing of the Gulf Cartel that eventually split and became its own trafficking organization. The Northeast Cartel has retained a relatively small portion of what the Zetas once ruled. Its base is Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial port on the Mexico-United States border.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the administration will hold the cartels “accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence.”
“We will continue to cut off the cartels’ ability to obtain the drugs, money and guns that enable their violent activities,” Bessent said.
In March, a group of Mexican nationals and former leaders of the Los Zetas was arraigned in Washington on charges that included engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that involved several murder conspiracies, and conspiring to manufacture and distribute large quantities of cocaine and marijuana destined for the U.S.