The war on the cartels is no longer just at the border—it’s now being fought with banking sanctions, foreign policy muscle, and global financial pressure. That’s the message from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who just made it clear: the United States is coming for the money laundering lifelines that keep terrorist cartels afloat.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Bessent announced that the Treasury Department is using every tool available to target Mexican drug cartels—treating them as foreign terrorist organizations and dismantling their ability to operate through financial warfare. “We are coming for them,” he declared.

The crackdown has already begun. Treasury officials recently sanctioned three Mexican financial institutions—CIBanco SA, Intercam Banco SA, and Vortex Casa de Bolsa—for allegedly laundering millions for cartels and wiring funds to China for fentanyl precursors. That chemical pipeline has been a major contributor to America’s deadly overdose crisis.

This isn’t just an economic move. It’s a political shot across the bow. One of the sanctioned firms, Vortex, is owned by Alfonso Romo, a prominent figure from Mexico’s previous administration. The move rattled Mexico’s political class so hard that President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly dismissed the sanctions, claiming the U.S. hadn’t provided evidence.

But Washington isn’t backing down. Designating the cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations gives the U.S. sweeping powers: freezing assets, banning American businesses from engaging with cartel-connected entities, and tightening the global financial screws on anyone helping the drug lords.

And this isn’t just about Mexico. Bessent is pushing the fentanyl issue to the center of America’s trade talks with China—where the precursors to the deadly drug originate. “If they wanted to, they could turn off the supply of these chemicals,” he said. But since Beijing hasn’t acted, the U.S. is applying economic pressure, plain and simple.

These cartel networks, according to Bessent, thrive on complex international finance—hidden money transfers, shell firms, and complicit banks. By targeting these flows, the Trump administration is taking a page from its broader America First playbook: fight enemies not just with bullets, but with banking blacklists.

This strategy marks a major escalation from the previous administration’s more cautious approach. Under President Trump, the gloves are off—and the mission is to dismantle the cartel threat at its financial root.

Bessent didn’t mince words: “We are going to end this.”

If that sounds like a bold promise, it’s because it is. But with sanctions already rattling elites in Mexico and diplomatic pressure mounting on China, it’s clear this administration is betting that financial warfare can achieve what years of border security efforts alone could not.

This isn’t just about dollars and cents—it’s about national survival. The cartels’ money is their power. And for the first time in a long time, that power is under serious threat.