Foreign Policy

Former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw Heads Cartel Task Force

BY Guy D. McCardle

Dan Crenshaw has turned the House into a war room, aiming the intelligence, sanctions, and if needed the rifle sight of American power at cartel empires that poison our streets while daring Washington to flinch.

Congressman Dan Crenshaw strides down the Capitol steps like a man on a mission—taking his fight against the cartels from the border to the halls of power. Image Credit: Francis Chung / POLITICO

Former Navy SEAL and Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw is not treating the Mexican cartels like a routine organized crime problem. He is chairing a House task force built to hit transnational criminal networks the way Washington usually handles foreign enemies. His case is simple. Fentanyl kills in U.S. communities, cartels exploit the border, and the status quo failed. In his words, cartels have “operational control” in key seams of the southern border and are driving what he calls a mass poisoning of America through the steady flow of fentanyl.

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What This Task Force Is Built To Do

The Cartel Task Force sits under the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Speaker Mike Johnson and HPSCI leadership tapped Crenshaw to lead it with a mandate to shape House Republican strategy against violent Mexican cartels and their global partners. The job is to drive policy, consolidate intelligence insights, and translate both into legislation.

Crenshaw’s group has run briefings with senior U.S. homeland and border officials and engaged foreign counterparts. Early in the hunt, the task force hauled in Ecuador’s president for a closed-door briefing on how his country fights cartels that burrow their way into state institutions. It now aims to hand Congress actionable recommendations with bite, the kind that move through committees and become law.

This isn’t political theater. Crenshaw shifted the task force from talk sessions to real drafting work that can become actionable law. The goal is clear: write legislation with bite, not headlines for the evening news.

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The Strategic Shift: From “Organized Crime” To National Security Threat

Treating cartels like mafia families has not stopped record fentanyl deaths. The emerging framework treats top cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) or their functional equivalent, which unlocks stronger sanctions, intelligence authorities, and partner operations. In January 2025, the White House set a process to designate international cartels as FTOs or as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The State Department followed by naming specific groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, citing their role in fentanyl trafficking and extreme violence.

Mexico pushed back hard. President Claudia Sheinbaum warned against any hint of U.S. “invasion,” stressing cooperation on sovereignty terms even as bilateral security coordination continued in some areas. That resistance frames the diplomatic terrain any hard-edge approach must cross.

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Crenshaw’s Policy Toolkit

Crenshaw has advocated an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) tailored to cartels. His H.J.Res. 18 would authorize force against named organizations outside the United States with a five year sunset. It is meant as a deterrent and as legal cover for kinetic options in extreme cases, while keeping the fight overseas and in concert with partners.

He pairs that with an intelligence first posture. The HPSCI task force provides the venue to integrate intelligence collection, financial mapping, and technology tracking like cartel drone use and cross border logistics. It also allows Congress to target enablers such as chemical precursors and money laundering nodes through sanctions and export controls. Public briefings and press events have carried that message: identify, isolate, and if required, kill or capture top leadership in partner operations.

Think of the plan like counterinsurgency against a for profit enemy. You cut supply chains, burn down financial safe houses through sanctions, and drive wedges among factions. A cartel is less like a gang and more like a franchise model that spans borders. If you only arrest a manager, headquarters replaces him by the weekend. 🚨Trump says U.S. forces destroyed a drug-carrying submarine headed for America—loaded with fentanyl and other narcotics. Two narcoterrorists killed, two captured and sent to Ecuador & Colombia. “Under my watch, the U.S. will not tolerate narcoterrorists—by land or by sea.” —… pic.twitter.com/zBXoCAnbcX — Joshua Reid | Redpills.tv (@realjoshuareid) October 18, 2025 What He Is Saying, And Why It Resonates Crenshaw’s public position blends blunt talk with a policy map. He argues that fentanyl deaths top tens of thousands annually and that the cartels weaponize the border crisis to move product and people. In 2023 he said the United States should be prepared to directly target cartels that drive the fentanyl wave, which for him means pairing law enforcement with military options under law. Those points have been consistent across his press releases, news conferences, and television hits. That rhetoric helped move the Overton window. The administration shifted toward FTO-style designations and sharper interagency action. State has used the new framework to name and shame major cartels, which tightens the net on travel, finance, and procurement. The conversation also spilled into the Pentagon, where separate counter-narcotics actions and new tasking have drawn scrutiny over rules of engagement and legal authorities. Whether one agrees or not, the national security lens is now the center of gravity in Washington’s cartel debate. Where This Goes Next Expect the task force to deliver a package that fuses the AUMF concept, expanded terrorism designations, stronger sanctions, and directives for intelligence collection and partner operations. Expect hearings that frame cartels as transnational armed groups linked to Chinese precursor supply chains and global money flows. Also expect friction with Mexico City that will require diplomatic ballast if joint operations are to deepen. The fight is ugly because the enemy is adaptive. Trying to arrest your way out of this is like mopping up a flooded floor while the faucet runs. Crenshaw’s task force is about finding the valve and turning it off with every tool Congress can authorize. Whether Congress, the White House, and Mexico can pull in the same direction will decide how fast that valve turns.
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