Federal law enforcement officials are moving to work more closely with spying agencies to enforce President Donald Trump’s directives against drug traffickers.
Traditional law enforcement agencies need new guidance on how to use confidential informants in cartel investigations now that such groups are considered terrorist organizations, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said in a Wednesday audit. The office suggested helping the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives deal with the criminals in the realm of “foreign intelligence or foreign counterintelligence” efforts.
The DOJ agreed to update its guidance in light of Trump’s orders, a letter included in the audit shows. The documents shed more light on the federal government’s shift toward more aggressive, global-war-on-terror-style tactics against groups such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel. The president’s novel use of “foreign terrorist” designations against narcotics networks has already led to military strikes on suspected drug boats and DOJ terrorism charges.
New DOJ guidance should help the three law enforcement agencies “protect [confidential informants] and share and preserve information within the U.S. Intelligence Community,” the inspector general’s office said.
Trump’s directives “shift narcotics trafficking from a traditional law enforcement environment to a national security environment,” the inspector general audit noted. The report referenced 2025 executive orders labeling cartels and transnational gangs as terrorist organizations and illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
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“As a result, the missions of combatting illicit drugs and guns from cartels designated as foreign terrorist organizations, as well as pursuing such individuals, or fugitives, cause ATF, the DEA, and the USMS to operate in or adjacent to the national security environment,” the inspector general’s office wrote.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter will convene a “working group” with federal law enforcement to address the issue within four months, the DOJ told the inspector general on Friday.