THE names of ruthless drug kingpins conjure ghoulish images of vicious assassinations, burning cars, white powder, weapons and deadly machismo. And now Donald Trump's new government is set to wage a lethal war to crush the criminal cartels who pose a deadly threat to millions.
![[A Sinaloa Cartel member, identified as Guero, holds a handgun while two others prepare drugs.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/member-sinaloa-cartel-identifies-guero-874532230.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
In one of his first actions as US president this week, he immediately designated murderous gangs from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and El Salvador as foreign terrorist organisations - and promised swift results at any cost. Among the Republican's initial blitz of executive orders, one insists the cartels "threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.
![[Burning bus on a road.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/burning-bus-set-alight-cartel-531866989.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
"The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs," it added.
![[Close-up of a gang member's face, heavily tattooed, wearing a face mask.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/mega-prison-hundreds-members-ms-839402428.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
So who are the biggest gangs Trump is cracking down on - and how have they built their blood-soaked empires?. Much of the most gruesome violence and bloodshed in the States itself is blamed on the powerful El Savadorian cartel Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, - known for their chilling motto ‘kill, rape, control.’.
![[Photo of a young woman with long dark hair.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gabriela-alejandra-gonzalez-ardon-965749846.jpg?strip=all&w=613)
These cold-blooded killers employ a crude peasant tool, the machete, to rip into the bodies and psyches of anyone who dares defy them. The gang first originated in Los Angeles with a group of impoverished boys who had fled to America from El Salvador as refugees from the country's long-running and brutal civil war in the Eighties.
![[Close-up of a man's face with a gang tattoo.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2013-inmates-handed-handmade-knives-295505718.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
