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FTO Series: Analyzing Networks of Eight Major Mexican Cartels

A new NCITE paper in an ongoing series details the alliance and subgroup structures of the Mexican cartels that were recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

  • published: 2026/11/04
Alliance networks for nine Mexican cartel organizations and factions, illustrating variation in the number and arrangement of documented relationships surrounding each focal group.

Alliance networks for nine Mexican cartel organizations and factions, illustrating variation in the number and arrangement of documented relationships surrounding each focal group.

Removing a powerful Mexican drug cartel leader might seem like a major victory in combating organized crime. But the criminal networks operating beneath that leader can remain intact, adapt, and even grow stronger.

New research from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) Center examines how Mexico's most powerful cartels operate through interconnected networks of criminal organizations, shifting alliances and increasingly sophisticated technologies — and why traditional strategies for dismantling these groups may not be enough.

Read the paper: “The Cartel-Terrorism Nexus: Assessing Mexican Cartels Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations” which examines the eight Mexican criminal organizations recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations. The paper is written by Nathan P. Jones, an associate professor of security studies in the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University.

Why it matters: The Mexican cartel threats posed to the U.S. is less about large-scale attacks and more about the steady harm that comes from transporting illicit drugs, people, weapons and money across the U.S.-Mexico border. Violence against local residents, Mexican government officials or U.S. citizens and law enforcement still persist among low-level leadership.

Key takeaways:

  • Taking down a cartel leader doesn’t take down the cartel. In February 2026, Mexican forces killed El Mencho, the leader of the largest and most powerful cartel in Mexico, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). However, thanks to CJNG’s extensive and dense network of alliances, the group suffered little fragmentation.
  • Cartel criminal activity extends far beyond drug trafficking. Cartels have diversified into fuel theft, cargo theft, extortion, smuggling, money laundering and other illicit enterprises affecting critical infrastructure and legitimate businesses. Their operations can exploit transportation, energy, telecommunications and other sectors, creating security challenges that extend beyond traditional counternarcotics enforcement.
  • Success in stopping the cartels depends on continued Mexico-U.S. cooperation. Authorities should plan for retaliation before a strike, consider targeting financial, alliance or laundering ties instead of a senior leader, and account for downstream impacts due to the cartels’ interconnectedness.

What they're saying:

  • Mackenzie Harms Wickersham, Ph.D., FTO series editor
    • “Of the groups covered in this series, the Mexican cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 2025 and 2026 pose the most direct and persistent threat to U.S. communities … They operate along the roughly 1,954-mile shared border and inside the United States.”

What’s next: This report is part of an ongoing NCITE research series examining the more than 30 groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State in 2025 and 2026. Look for more reports to be published this month, and go to the series homepage to read about all the groups.