Trump Signs National Counterterrorism Strategy Designating Western Hemisphere Cartels — Including Sinaloa — as Highest Priority Threat

President Donald Trump signed a new National Counterterrorism Strategy on May 6, 2026 that formally designates the elimination of Western Hemisphere drug cartels — including the Sinaloa Cartel — as the administration's highest national security priority. White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka framed the strategy by noting that more Americans have been killed by cartel-supplied fentanyl than US service members in all post-WWII conflicts combined. The strategy sets measurable enforcement outcomes as conditions for bilateral cooperation with Mexico, placing compliance pressure on the financial sector, the USMCA trade framework, and Mexican public institutions. The announcement came five days after the DOJ SDNY indictment of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and amid Sheinbaum's public pushback on US pressure — a direct message to Mexico City that Washington regards the Sinaloa Cartel's political-criminal network as an active national security threat. US drug enforcement agencies were instructed to intensify operations targeting cartel distribution networks. That same day, US federal prosecutors in West Virginia sentenced Jose Alberto Camarena Rocha (32) of Arizona to 159 months (13+ years) in prison for heroin trafficking with direct Sinaloa Cartel ties, as part of the broader prosecution wave targeting the network's US-side distributors. The sentencing reflects the ongoing multi-district effort to dismantle the Sinaloa supply chain while the cartel's internal civil war between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza continues in Sinaloa state.