Feds Indict Two in Cartel Meth Ring Tied to Designated Terrorist Group; Meth Bust Near Knoxville Leads to Indictments of ‘High Ranking’ Members of Top Cartel, DOJ Says

U.S. Border Patrol via AP, File

Feds indict two in cartel meth ring tied to designated terrorist group:

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has indicted two high-ranking members of the United Cartels on charges related to methamphetamine trafficking, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and firearms offenses, the Justice Department announced.

Juan Jose “Juanjo” Farias Mendoza, 31, and Israel “Papo” Vega Farias, 37, both of Tepalcatepec, Michoacan, Mexico, were named in the indictment returned this week. The two are close relatives of the cartel’s top leader, Juan Jose Farias Alvarez, known as “Abuelo” — Farias Mendoza is his son, and Vega Farias is his nephew, according to the Justice Department.

The United Cartels, also known as Cárteles Unidos, is described by federal officials as one of the world’s most significant methamphetamine producers, capable of manufacturing multiple tons of the drug every month. The organization’s distribution network reaches across the United States — with hubs in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Kansas City, Missouri, Sacramento, California, Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago — and extends to Europe, Australia and other regions, the release states.

On Feb. 20, 2025, the State Department designated the United Cartels as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. The latest indictment builds on criminal charges the Justice Department announced in August 2025 against several command-and-control figures in the organization, including Abuelo, who was charged by the Criminal Division in 2024.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said the two defendants are accused of trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine into the United States and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, calling the indictment part of a systematic effort to dismantle Mexican cartels by targeting their command-and-control elements.

U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee said the investigation began with a methamphetamine seizure near Knoxville and a larger interdiction of more than 950 kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl outside Atlanta, leading to a broader multi-agency investigation involving federal, state and local law enforcement partners. ...>READ MORE HERE

Meth Bust Near Knoxville Leads to Indictments of ‘High Ranking’ Members of Top Cartel, DOJ Says:

A methamphetamine bust near Knoxville, Tennessee helped prosecutors build a case that led a federal grand jury to return an indictment accusing two Mexican nationals of trafficking “immense” quantities of the drug throughout the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday.

In a press release, the DOJ Office of Public Affairs confirmed the indictments of Jose “Juanjo” Farias Mendoza and Israel “Papo” Vega Farias, who it described as residents of Michoacan, Mexico, and as “high-ranking members of the United Cartels.”

The United Cartels, also known as Carteles Unidos, was added to the list of entities designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) by the U.S. Department of State in February 2025. According to the Counter-Terrorism Guide maintained by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the United Cartels is actually “a coalition of drug trafficking and criminal organizations,” formed in 2019 to establish the west-central Mexican state of Michoacan as their territory.

According to the ODNI, the criminal enterprise employs both threats and violence against Mexican authorities to achieve compliance, with “small arms, IEDs, and weaponized [unmanned aircraft systems]” all employed against rival cartels and Mexican police, according to the Counter-Terrorism Guide.

The guide alleges the cartel, “smuggles cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine into the United States.”

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Francis Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee confirmed the investigation which led to the indictment began in rural Tennessee.

“The investigation into the United Cartels began in the Eastern District of Tennessee, with a seizure of methamphetamine in a small town outside Knoxville, and a larger interdiction of over 950 kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl outside of Atlanta,” said Hamilton. --->READ MORE HERE

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