President Trump's administration recently designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the personal army of the rogue mullahs running the nation, as terrorists.
The goal was to crack down on those doing business with the army and open additional paths for the free world to apply pressure.
Now the state of Ohio says it would be a good idea for the federal government to apply the same label to the Mexican drug cartels that operate along the U.S. southern border.
In a concurrent resolution in Ohio's general assembly, the state points out the drug cartels "are responsible for the flow of opioids" into the U.S. and human trafficking."
Drug Enforcement Administration acting administrator Uttam Dhillon recent described the cartels at "the biggest criminal threat the United States faces today."
"The drug cartels meet the criteria to be designated foreign terrorist organizations … given that they are foreign in nature, they engage in or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorism, and they threaten the security of United States nationals and the national defense, foreign relations, and economic interests of the United States," the state said.
The resolution asks the federal government to move against the criminal groups.
Washington watchdog Judicial Watch noted that the move followed a multi-year investigation that resulted in 19 suspects going to jail.
The suspects were part of the Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel, which is embedded in the state.
"I don't think people understand how significant and embedded it is in northeast Ohio," said Keith Martin of the Cleveland office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"Coco plants don't grow in Cleveland. Poppy plants don't grow in Parma, they come from somewhere else," said Justin Herdman, the U.S. attorney for northern Ohio. "They are, increasingly, in almost every case, the drugs are coming from Mexican cartels."
Judicial Watch explained Ohio's move "further points out that the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the U.S. Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, to designate an organization as an FTO when certain criteria are met."
"Drug cartels meet the criteria, Ohio lawmakers assert, because they are foreign in nature, engage in or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorism and threaten the security of American citizens and the national defense, foreign relations and economic interests of the United States."
Judicial Watch disclosed the same conclusions in a document it published only weeks ago.
"In it, Judicial Watch provides comprehensive documentation that Mexican drug cartels, notoriously sophisticated criminal operations, undoubtedly meet the U.S. government's requirements to be designated FTOs."
The watchdog said: "Properly designating the major Mexican TCOs – including Los Zetas, Juárez and Sinaloa cartels – as FTOs would enhance the federal government's ability to combat that threat… An official FTO designation would enable the prosecution of those who provide material support to them, facilitate the denial of entry and deportation of TCO members and affiliates and eliminate the organizations' access to the U.S. financial system."
It continued: "Mexican TCOs have also committed hundreds of political assassinations in recent years and members of Los Zetas launched a grenade and shot small arms fire at the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey. Los Zetas members also murdered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Jaime Zapata a few years ago. Judicial Watch's White Paper also documents Mexican cartels' use of explosive devices and high-caliber firearms, including rocket-propelled grenades and other military weapons. In 2018 Mexican officials seized nearly 2,000 high-caliber weapons from suspected cartel associates in Mexico City and there have been approximately 150,000 organized-crime related murders in Mexico since 2006. Last year alone, there were nearly 1,200 kidnappings in Mexico…"
The crime wave not only is motivated by money, but also by the goal of intimidating political, judicial, military and law enforcement officials, the report said.