U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on September 23, 2025, at the 80th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: UN.
Guacamaya, September 23, 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, criticizing the organization’s inefficiency while highlighting his own actions in a speech lasting almost an hour. He dedicated portions of his speech to Venezuela and the issue of drug trafficking.
In the televised address, he announced that he had classified several drug cartels and two gangs, MS13 and Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations. He also expressed his commitment to eliminating “Venezuelan terrorists.”
After the bombing of three vessels suspected of transporting drugs from Venezuela last month, Trump claimed that “we’ve virtually stopped drugs coming into our country by sea.”
“These organizations torture, mutilate, and murder with impunity; they are the enemies of all humanity. That’s why we have commenced using the supreme power of the U.S. armed forces to eradicate Venezuelan terrorists and trafficking networks controlled by Nicolás Maduro,” Trump stated regarding the designated gangs. “We will blow them out of existence.”
Who are the cartels designated by Trump?
In February, the State Department designated six Mexican organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT): the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Northeast Cartel (CDN), La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM), the Gulf Cartel (CDG), and United Cartels (CU).
Additionally, it added “Mara Salvatrucha” or MS13, which originated in Los Angeles, California, as well as Tren de Aragua, which hails from Venezuela. Both groups operate in various countries across Latin America and within the U.S.
So far, according to the president’s comments, the Pentagon has only taken action against alleged members of Tren de Aragua. Nevertheless, experts and the DEA note that this organization is not linked to large-scale drug trafficking. Thus, it’s quite possible that the crew of the attacked vessels were not part of Tren de Aragua.
President Trump has sought to connect the Venezuelan criminal group to Maduro to rationalize his policy of mass deportations. This justification was part of his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which resulted in the deportation of 250 Venezuelans to the CECOT in El Salvador and the removal of immigrant protections like TPS and “humanitarian parole.”
However, several U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and NSA, have denied the existence of any evidence linking Tren de Aragua to or indicating it is backed by the Venezuelan government.
Has the flow of drugs into the United States been stopped? Fact-Checking
No, and we shouldn’t expect it.
Trump estimated that around 300,000 people died last year from drugs, “from fentanyl and other substances.” The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 80,391 deaths due to narcotics-related overdoses in 2024. In 2023, 70% were attributed to fentanyl.
On the flip side, bombing vessels would have a minimal effect on the flow of drugs. The fentanyl consumed in the U.S. is mostly produced domestically or enters through land, particularly across the border with Mexico, originating from China and India.
No organization fighting drug trafficking has reported fentanyl production or trafficking activities in Venezuela.
When it comes to cocaine, which is indeed trafficked in large amounts through Venezuela, Trump is not targeting the primary routes. The DEA claims that only 5% of cocaine produced in Colombia passes through Venezuela.
Moreover, 84% of cocaine leaving South America travels via the Eastern Pacific, and 90% enters the U.S. via land through Mexico.
In other words, Trump is directing the most extensive anti-drug military effort in history at a route that has the least significance to the drug addiction crisis in the U.S.