Trump Administration Sets Sights On Crushing Cartels

The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. The U.S. Department of Transportation is empowering staff with Google AI tools to rapidly synthesize research and streamline contracting, directly strengthening the safety and reliability of our nation's transit systems. This is a new era of American Innovation. Learn more at g.co-slash American Innovation. The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. There are hundreds of thousands of skilled trade roles across the U.S. waiting to be filled. To help close this workforce gap, Google is expanding its skill trade support to help train more than 300,000 American workers across over 20 states. This is a new era of American innovation. Learn more at grow. Google slash skill trades. I'm Will Kane. I'm Janice Dean. I'm Greg Gutfeld. And this is the Fox News Rundown.

TDA, Tere Aragua and MS-13, those violent gangs, and then the six Mexican cartels, two of which are the most dominant Sinola and Holisco, and then you have the Zetas in the Gulf Cartel, and then the Cartel Unitas, and then La Nueva Familia Micho Khan. So those six cartels, plus those two violent gangs, incorporated into the 77 foreign terrorist organization designated by the State Department, more than half of those. 77 FTOs are involved in drug trafficking. Wow. So this is not new. You're the special agent in charge in the New York division, and you have been since 2022. Certainly that's the Biden presidency. Is it different in Trump's second term for you? Doing your job? Absolutely. In terms of providing us with the tools, resources, and measures that will allow us to combat these transnational criminal organizations and to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl powder and pills that's flooding into the United States and killing Americans at catastrophic record rates, that... hasn't really been available to us before, these different tools and resources and authorities? The president has had tariffs on China, tariffs on Canada and Mexico related to fentanyl. Have there been more seizures in his presidency for you? Have you seen an increase in fentanyl that's taken away from the streets? We're seizing more and more fentanyl powder and pills every single day across the United States, both within the DEA and our federal partners across this country. And we're having a greater impact because we have increased coordination and collaboration that we didn't have before. So this unity of effort is really making a difference. We have seen an increase in other types of drug seizures. We're seeing an increase in cocaine. And of course, fentanyl mixed with cocaine is a very serious concern of ours. It's a deadly cocktail. A lot of people who are utilizing cocaine often have no idea that it's being laced with fentanyl and they're overdosing and dying. And it's considered a poisoning. And so when we see these... increases in other types of drugs plus the fentanyl, it raises that risk and concern in our drug law enforcement work because what we see as these other synthetic opioids that are also hitting the streets. And so this complexity, this globalization of the drug trafficking world really challenges us, but I will tell you that we're making significant progress and we're staying ahead of the curve. And like I said, the seizures are increasing, but so is the lethality decreasing. Why is that? Well, it's a combination of things. It's through our law enforcement efforts. So through enforcement, through education, prevention, and awareness, we're able to educate the public and make them aware of some of these real serious risks associated with.

illicit drug use. But also... They don't know where they came from, right? That's correct. They think that this pill is harmless or a friend gives them this pill and it seems like it's fine, but it's not. That's right. Yep. There are countless examples of young people, some of our most vulnerable who think they're buying a percocet or a Vicodin or an Adderall pill when in fact they're actually buying a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl. And these moms and dads that we meet on a regular basis... really are grief-stricken, and they want justice. They want those bad actors, those predatory criminal drug traffickers held accountable. So when we talk about the lethality going down, what we're talking about is that in 2022, we had our laboratories across the United States looking at the lethality in each pill. And what they determined was that it was four out of ten pills. Okay. And then in 2003, it went to five out of ten. And then in 24, it went to six and then eventually seven out of ten pills. So seven out of every ten pills that we tested in our nine laboratories across the United States had a lethal dose of fentanyl, and that's two milligrams. That's a lot. It's tremendous. It's why we ended up at 112,323 American lives lost in 2003, right? So is that a peak? Are we down? Is the rate lower now? So we went from 112,323 in a 12-month period ending in 2020, down to 84,076 in a 12-month period ending in October. That is a big drop. So you're talking about a 25% decrease, but we also have seen the lethality drop. So now we went from 7 out of 10 pills to 5 out of 10 pills. So this is, again, a very concerted effort by law enforcement by the DEA and our partners in the federal, state, and local levels of law enforcement working tirelessly to go after these transnational criminal organizations, the cartels specifically, Sinaloa and CGNG, and causing them to change their business operational model, right? Let's be very clear about this. This is all about money. It's a profit-driven business, right? They are motivated by greed and power. So their intent is to get as many people as possible. addicted to fentanyl. And it's the most highly addicting synthetic opioid ever created. But why would they want those pills to be so lethal because you're killing your customers? They don't care because they are really just motivated by the bottom line, the dollar, right? They just want to make money. So the more people that use their product, the more people become addicted, the increased customer base, the increased profit margin. And if somebody happens to overdose and die or... what we say now is become substance use dependent and is poisoned, then they'll just go off to the next customer. Find a new victim. Yeah. So with globalization, with technology, and with the synthetic opioid sort of explosion and increased availability, we have this really severe...

drug overdose epidemic happening across the United States now as I said we we've had significant progress but we have a lot of work left to do there's still too many people dying every day Were you happy to see the deployment down to the area outside of Venezuela to make that an emphasis by the U.S. military? Yeah, absolutely. We need to use all of the tools and resources at our disposal to really make an impact and to eliminate. This is the goal, elimination, complete total elimination of the drug cartels. This isn't about just disruption. This is about eliminating them. Is that doable? They've been around the war on drugs. I mean, since we were kids, the war on drugs, we know about the war on drugs. And the cartels have been around for a long time. That's right. But this is a new approach. As I said to you earlier, this is a... clarity of purpose and a unity of effort like we have never seen before. And that's why I'm confident that we will make a huge difference. And utilizing all of these tools and resources, utilizing the United States intelligence community and the United States military in coordination with our law enforcement community, we can have a significant impact. It's about following the investigation. from where it starts here in New York City, all the way back to the source country, and then indicting and prosecuting all of those people involved in that network. And so that's the elimination of the network, right? It's about... As I said to you earlier, we have to first identify. That's mapping the network. Then we have to target them, right? Then we have to interdict and eventually eliminate all of these organizations. And we're slowly and methodically and very consistently going after these cartels and their cartel leaders. And we've had successes in recent months. Now, the Trump administration has announced a lot of drug busts and seizures from fentanyl cocaine. And on Monday. The DEA announced that in the last week of August across America, they made 617 arrests and confiscated a lot of drugs, including more than 1,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and over 8 tons of cocaine, along with $11 million cash and hundreds of guns. And Special Agent Tarantino tells us, in the last two days in New York City, They had a significant seizure in Upper Manhattan of nearly 25 pounds of methamphetamine and a bunch of arrests and a gun. And then they were able to identify a fentanyl mill, a processing mill in the Bronx. And they arrested six illegal criminal drug traffickers, all with...

status issues here in the United States, all illegal aliens, and then 100,000 glassines ready for street-level distribution of fentanyl. And then, of course, multiple kilograms of fentanyl powder were seized, along with mixers and processing material and processing machines, all designed to... create this street level distribution network that we're targeting here in New York City. And the Bronx is ground zero for us. What we have seen is that the majority of overdose deaths and poisonings in New York City happen in the Bronx. And it's not through the efforts of the city and or law enforcement to curb that. problem. We're doing that every day. It's just that their availability and the opportunity and the geographical location of the Bronx along that 95 corridor presents a really great opportunity for these networks to operate from. And these criminal networks, this One in particular was mass-producing fentanyl for street-level distribution, which is really fueling this opioid overdose crisis that we're facing today. And that's what gives you satisfaction, right? When you have a win like that. Absolutely. What we know for absolute certainty is that we removed lethal doses of fentanyl from our city streets and that undoubtedly saved lives. Frank Tarantino, Special Agent in Charge for the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Great to have you on. Thanks very much. Thank you, David. Great to be here.

He was one of America's most notorious serial killers now. Never before heard family recordings offer new insight into the mind of Jeffrey Dahmer. My son, Jeffrey, the Dahmer Family Tapes podcast. Listen and follow now at foxtruecrime.com. This is David Marcus with your Fox News commentary coming up. As the Democrats waved through dismal poll numbers, different party members are staking out different positions. For example, New York Congressman Tom Suozzi in one of the few swing districts left, came back from a visit to the border recently to say this. Democrats and Republicans have to stop fighting with each other, and we have to pick out our common enemy. Our common enemy is organized crime, cartels, people trying to break the rules to make millions of dollars every year by exploiting people who they're trafficking. Of course, President Trump's handling of the border has dovetailed with his desire to tackle crime on the streets of some of the nation's most violent cities like Chicago. But Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says it's a ruse. This is a part of his plan to do something really nefarious, which is to interfere with elections in 2026. He wants to have troops on the ground. Former DNC press secretary Jose Aristamuno is regularly on Fox News Channel as a Democratic voice. But when it comes to the way President Trump's tackling crime, he has questions for his own party. What the president is doing to stop that, to stop Nicolas Maduro, the king of the drug cartels in Latin America, you know, it gives me great pride. And those are the type of things that we can collaborate with the president. So as the Democrats figure out who is now primed for leadership, one man is getting a lot of the attention, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. A New York Times-Syana College pool has him at 46% with voters, Andrew Cuomo, with 24%, Republican Curtis Sliwa has 15, and current mayor Eric Adams has just nine. Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was beside himself but a weekend town hall at Brooklyn College. I find it. Hard to understand how the major Democratic leaders in New York State are not supporting the Democratic candidate. Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream asked Governor Kathy Hochul about that over the weekend. It is up to the voters, and there should not be outside influences on this decision from the White House on down. Let the voters of New York decide. Zohran Mamdani's rise comes as a new Gallup poll, finds American support for capitalism falling to just 54%. Support for socialism has risen to 39%. I think the fact that Zohran Mamdani was able to pull ahead. of Andrew Cuomo when he was kind of the anointed successor in the mayor's race just proves that the Democratic Party, especially in New York, was not in touch with the base whatsoever. Yemisi Egbe Walei is a former chief of staff to the White House press office under President Biden and now principal at podium strategies. They thought that they could hand deliver a candidate and everyone would fall in line. And what that candidate, Andrew Cuomo, failed to do was provide actual.

plans and solutions here. The fact that Zohran Mamdani could stand up and say, look, three things, free grocery stores, free buses, you know, free healthcare. He could just say a couple of policy lines and he was able to grab people's attention. And of course, we're not even touching on the kind of media blitz that he did in the way that he was able to capture online, which a lot of Democrats are behind the curve on. I mean, to me, The push behind Zohran Mamdani is a protest vote from the people in response to establishment Democrats trying to shove a disgraced and failed political candidate down everyone's throat. And I think it really is people saying, we are done being told who to vote for and choosing the leaders that you put before us. You have to bring people of quality or we will choose someone else. It's so interesting because we've had the candidate quality discussion now for several years. Do you think Zohran Mamdani is this powerhouse or if it had been a different kind of candidate, maybe somebody a little bit more moderate or centrist than a Zohran Mamdani, that that person would be ahead or would it still be this close? You know what? I think it's both in this instance. I think Zohran Mamdani looks stronger because, I mean, look, he's up against somebody that is politically weak right now and really at their lowest to see somebody who used to be the governor whose last name is on a bridge, resort to the kind of tactics that he is. It's just pathetic. I wouldn't have believed five years ago if you told me this was going to be the Andrew Cuomo of today, right? But at the same time, you have to acknowledge that Zohran Mamdani was able to mobilize a base in a way that no other Democrats have done. We just do not know Democrats that are this media savvy. Engaging with folks online is something that we've always equated with Trump and MAGA and the way that he's been able to capture people's attention. Zohran Mamdani did that. And that's just, it's unknown in the Democratic Party. And so he is a powerhouse in a way that he's facing a weaker candidate, but also in that he is forcing Democrats of today and the people who run in the future to rethink how they energize a base. If Zohran Mamdani becomes the mayor, kind of to your point, what do you think that will mean for Democrats? Will they look at that and say, okay, you know what? This is a blueprint. We should have backed him and we do need to move further left. Or does most of the party chalk it up to like a New York story? Like this is a local New York situation. For me, coming from the South, I'm from Georgia outside of Atlanta. To me, that is all of the New York. kind of profile. A guy like that in New York doesn't get elected where I'm from in Marietta, Georgia. It just doesn't happen. However, I do think that if the people pick a candidate, those in leadership for that state, for that district, respective wherever, have to back that person. That is who the majority within your party have decided on. That is who you have to back. Because if we are not in conversation with the candidates who are running in our party and we just leave them out to dry because they don't fit what we think our platform is, we... alienate a big chunk of our base, but we also put ourselves at odds with candidates who, you know, if Zohran Mamdani is elected, then he's in charge of implementing policy. And if he's never had a sit down conversation with him, how are you going to be at the table when he's deciding on that? How are you going to help him come to the middle, get some of these things across the finish line?

Yeah, let's transition over to crime because there's a lot of competing voices and reaction from Democrats on this issue. We know California Governor Gavin Newsom, for example, has mocked President Trump's handling of crime, like sending in the National Guard or ICE, but then he set up his own, like, expanded crime task force with the Highway Patrol, sort of an acknowledgement that something needs to be done. Illinois officials are saying, just stay away with your National Guard and your ICE. But then you have like Congressman Tom Suozzi from a swing district in New York. York saying, you know what, let's work together on cartel and border-related violence. What do you think will end up being the party approach or will it be sort of piecemeal depending on where the Democrats are in the country? I think keyword here that you said is swing. A lot of the folks that are in these purple and swing districts are really having to talk about crime, because why? Because we know that voters care about public safety and they vote in that direction. If they feel like you're protecting their home, their community, their families, they're going to vote for you. And Democrats know this. Democrats are pro-crime. What they're not about is pro the conversation and the uncomfortability of crime. Because when we talk about crime, we have to talk about who commits crime. And we talk about crime in cities. We have to talk about the neighborhoods that crime has affected. And they just don't want to have an honest conversation about race at the intersection of crime, at the intersection of black youth. But to me, and I've said this time and time again, when people feel unsafe, they don't live in statistics, right? And so if I have to say that... young black kids are dying and also young black kids are committing crime, then I'm going to say that. And if it's going to make people uncomfortable, that's okay. Because in order to fix these systemic policy issues, we have to make them policy priorities. I think Democrats have to start talking and acknowledging crime before the midterms happen. To all of this conversation, there's a lot of discussion about messaging. And I want to get your thoughts on sort of after 2024, we kept hearing about how Democrats need their own Joe Rogan or a different sort of grassroots. influencer. It turns out a group called Chorus funded by the 1630 Fund. This is according to a new report, and they do quote and cite a number of progressive influencers who said this group was trying to pay people to come up with approved messaging, but if you take the money from us, you can't acknowledge that you're being paid by our group if you sign on. What did you make of this sort of? effort to sort of cultivate and pay would be progressive influencers in this way.

You know, Democrats have always been 10 steps behind when it comes to online engagement. And I also think that's in our influencers as well, right? Like we are behind on the push towards podcasts. We didn't realize that that was forming a lot of ideology and a lot of conversations online. And so now in the effort to catch up, folks are just throwing money and throwing money at people who have big followings. Look, I looked at the list of a lot of these influencers. And there are people that, frankly, have takes that feed. An online beast. They feed an audience online that already listens to itself believes the same thing. It's an echo chamber. And what Republican influencers were able to do very early on is that they took people who were waffling, who were on the line and said, look, I'm upset about this. And I don't know if you're upset about this, but hear me out. And we already know kind of like the voters who are like, look, I voted for Obama in 2009 and here I am, you know, voting for Donald Trump. It's been interesting to see the evolution of that. And I don't think no matter how much money you throw at progressive influencers, they're going to be able to grasp people in that way because they are so concerned with how they speak, how they engage with folks, not offending anyone. And the magical thing about the podcasters that rose up. during the Joe Rogan and the Tim Pool and all that is that even the ruthless podcast that works with Fox a lot is they don't care if you're offended. It's their opinion and it's authentic. And I just don't think Dems are ever going to be able to match that. Yeah, authenticity is at the root of it all. Okay, so finally, speaking of authentic, who among Democrats do you find right now to be the most authentic, to be the one who can make the case? And even though it's early, right, but we're going into midterms. Like, do you see Gavin Newsom and like what he's doing? Wes Moore, J.B. Pritzker, is Stacey Abrams going to make a comeback? Or is it somebody we maybe haven't heard too much about yet? And you maybe have your eye on them. Okay, let's not talk about female candidates. I'm not doing that anymore. I did Hillary in 2016, Dunn Harris now. Let's just pencils down on female candidates for right now. Fool me once and all that jazz. Gavin Newsom, he's a very pretty man. He's got a great social media blitz happening right now. He's engaging a lot of folks. I don't know if somebody from California, as polarizing as that state is, is going to have nationwide appeal. I'm looking at people that are a bit more quieter, that might not always grab all the attention, but have been highly effective. One of those folks is Andy Beshear from Kentucky. I was just going to say, Andy Beshear. Let me tell you something. And I... If we were in a room full of Dems, most of them would roll their eyes. But he does not care to appeal to those who are allowed on the internet. And that to me is so key. He is just...

honest as himself. And if that self is a little boring, that's okay. He doesn't do the gimmicks. You know, he would never do the role that Gavin Newsom is on right now doing the imitation of Trump. And as many laughs and retweets and all of that, that that's going to get him. I'm not sure how that convinces people who didn't already like him before to vote for him, to look to him for leadership. People keep forgetting that the cheers from the people who already support you are not enough to get you in the White House. We learn that the hard way time and time again. So I'm looking at folks like him, the folks that are a little bit more quiet. Wes Moore, you know, he's early in his career. Sometimes I think people jump a little bit too fast and then. You know, they hamper themselves. Josh Shapiro is somebody that I really respect. I think he's done great work in the Commonwealth, especially a state that we know swings back and forth. Democrats have an issue right now with Israel. I've talked about the super left of the party, the Rashida Tlaib, the Ilhan Omar's. And unfortunately, I do think that's going to have an effect on really, really great candidates that might be Jewish. And that is like shocking to say in 2025, but that is where we are at politically. Yamesee, Egba Wale, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us. Appreciate your time. Thank you so much. This was great. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of Unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out. That's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upbound payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for $12-month plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on politics, I'm joined by Republican strategist and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies, Colin Reed. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcast.com. Or wherever you get, your favorite. podcasts. Rate and review the Fox News rundown on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It's time for your Fox News commentary. David Marcus. What's on your mind? The battle over prayer in school is raging in Texas right now, with Attorney General Ken Paxton vowing to defend any school district that introduces the controversial practice under a recent state law expanding religious expression in education. For the entirety of my life, the prohibition on public school-sponsored prayer seemed like settled constitutional science, owing to a 1962 Supreme Court decision barring what had previously been a widespread and normal practice. In the past, I agreed with this form of separation in church and state. For me, it was almost a question of better safe than sorry regarding the rights of minority religions, and importantly, I believed that Christian moral values were so ingrained in our culture that 30 seconds a day of praying could be forsaken. Lord, was I wrong? In fact, the ban on school prayer was just one piece of a broader effort to remove God from the public square. The clear and patently wrong message was that God has nothing to do with public affairs or education. This is precisely how you wind up with Senator Tim Kaine, saying in the halls of Congress that it is extremely troubling to believe that our rights come from our creator, even though his fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson,

made this concept the cornerstone of the entire American experiment. In terms of education itself, throughout the history of the West, or dare we call it, Christendom, prayer has played a key role, at least up until 63 years ago, that is. Here we can appeal to Thomas Aquinas, not as a Catholic saint, but as one of the foremost academicians and teachers of the Middle Ages from his perch at the University of Paris in the mid-13th century. In his prayer for the student, Aquinas asks that the Holy Spirit, quote, pour forth your brilliance upon my dense intellect, dissipate the darkness which covers me, that of sin and ignorance, grant me a penetrating mind to understand a retentive memory, method, and ease in learning." What Aquinas understood so long ago was that the purpose of prayer in school is to recognize with humility, our own limitations, and to ask that the creator from whom our rights emanate guide us. Fast forward to 2025, and our public schools are by design atheistic. But atheism is not a neutral religious philosophy, nor a mere absence of religion. It implies a purely physical understanding of the world, an assertion that is no more provable than religion itself. Saying the Lord's Prayer each morning at school, seeking forgiveness from God, promising forgiveness for others, asking to be protected from temptations like laziness and delivered from evil such as drug use or hatred. prepares a student not just to learn, but to be an American citizen. In the absence of God in prayer, Senator Cain is absolutely correct. Our rights are nothing more than a piece of paper, subject to the swaying whims of powerful mortals. It is by no means an imposition on an American Jewish, Muslim, or atheist students to be exposed to the Lord's Prayer. They live in a nation founded on Christian understanding of morality. This Christian morality is ingrained in the DNA of America. In my lifetime, the efforts to banish religion from official and public proceedings have gone too far, and we can feel the loss. It's not too late to fix this lack. Now, with Texas leading the way, we can navigate a return to what Western education has always been and what it must always be. An act of service, not just to ourselves, not just to society, but to God Himself. I'm David Marcus, Fox News, digital columnist, and author of Shared, The COVID Lies That Crushed a Nation.

You've been listening to the Fox News Rundown. And now, stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at Fox News Podcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on Amazon Music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.