South Texas U.S. Attorney Says Cartel Terror Designation Let Feds Charge Gulf Cartel Sicario With 20-Year Terrorism Counts

Since Trump signed the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for several Mexican drug cartels earlier this year, federal prosecutors in South Texas say they now have a legal tool they didn't have before: the ability to charge cartel members with terrorism offenses instead of routine immigration violations.

Aaron Reitz, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, laid out the case at a press conference near the Texas-Mexico border, according to Breitbart Texas. He pointed to the prosecution of Jose Angel Flores Flores, a 21-year-old member of the Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel, as the clearest example yet of what the designation makes possible.

The Flores Flores Case

Border Patrol arrested Flores Flores earlier this year after he crossed illegally from Reynosa into Mission, Texas. He gave agents false information, claiming to be a minor, according to Reitz.

Agents had encountered Flores Flores once before, in January 2025, and deported him at the time. During the follow-up investigation into his most recent arrest, agents tied him to the Gulf Cartel and recovered a phone containing photos and videos, which Reitz says show Flores Flores dismembering or incinerating bodies and posing with weapons.

Reitz said Flores Flores admitted to being a "sicario" for the Gulf Cartel, the person the organization called when it needed a body disposed of. Prosecutors used that evidence to secure a criminal indictment charging him with two terrorism-related counts on top of the immigration charge.

An indictment is an accusation, not a conviction. Flores Flores has not yet been tried on the terrorism counts. Reitz said that without the FTO designation, Flores Flores would likely have faced only a low-level illegal re-entry charge, a short sentence, and deportation, with the possibility of resuming cartel work in Mexico. With the terrorism charges attached, he faces up to 20 years if convicted.

The Biden-Era Claim

Reitz told Breitbart Texas that during the Biden administration, federal authorities had their hands tied in how aggressively they could pursue and prosecute cartel members. He described the cartels as having "functionally controlled, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and smuggling, all egress and ingress of our southern border."

That characterization of the prior administration's approach is Reitz's own assessment, offered at a press conference, not a documented policy finding or an inspector general report. No specific Biden-era directive, memo, or policy change was cited in his remarks limiting terrorism charges against cartel members. The claim should be read as the position of a Trump-appointed prosecutor describing his predecessor's enforcement posture, not as an independently verified fact.

What Reitz Says Comes Next

Asked whether similar terrorism charges are coming for other roles within cartel operations, including lookouts, drug mules, money launderers, and foreign politicians allegedly tied to cartels, Reitz didn't hedge. "Absolutely," he said. "This is a message to anyone screwing around with the cartels: you got a big thing coming."

Federal terrorism statutes have historically been reserved for people with clear ties to organized violent plots, not low-level actors like drivers or lookouts who may have limited knowledge of a cartel's broader operations. Civil liberties advocates and defense attorneys could reasonably raise concerns about stretching terrorism charges, with their steep sentencing enhancements, onto people further down the chain who didn't personally commit violence. That concern hasn't been raised in Reitz's own remarks, but it's the kind of question defense lawyers are likely to press once these cases reach trial.

The FTO designation itself gives federal prosecutors expanded jurisdiction and tougher sentencing tools when a defendant can be tied to a designated organization, which is why Reitz is treating it as a turning point for his office. Whether it produces the wave of terrorism prosecutions he's promising, against mules, launderers, and politicians, and whether those charges hold up against Flores Flores and future defendants at trial, remains to be seen. No trial date for Flores Flores has been announced.