U.S. federal agencies have arrested 1,343 alleged members of Mexican cartels since April, the FBI said in a new border-operation tally released this week.
The figures cover 423 operations through Homeland Security Task Forces and the National Coordination Center, with more than 70 agencies involved. The FBI also listed 47,971 border inspections, 2.5 metric tons of narcotics seized, 421 weapons confiscated, and more than $700,000 in U.S. currency taken.
The numbers describe a U.S.-side surge along the southern border. They are not a claim that American agents made arrests inside Mexico, where President Claudia Sheinbaum has said U.S. agencies may share intelligence but cannot work in the field.
Border operations and seized weapons
The FBI said its work targeted Mexican cartels operating along the U.S. southern border. In its public statement, the bureau said, “From April to present, the FBI and partner agencies surged against Mexican cartels operating along the southern border of the U.S.”
The partner list included Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, ATF, IRS Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, and Customs and Border Protection. That mix shows the operation was not limited to drug seizures. It also reached weapons, cash, border inspections, and cases that can be moved to federal court.
The setup matches the broader cartel push the FBI described last year to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Jose Perez, assistant director of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division, said Homeland Security Task Forces were built to pursue drug trafficking, money laundering, weapons trafficking, human trafficking, homicide, extortion, and kidnapping tied to cross-border criminal groups.
The weapons figure is especially relevant for Mexico. U.S. firearms trafficking has long fed cartel firepower south of the border. U.S. agencies are now pairing more drug cases with weapons and money probes. In Puerto Vallarta, the same cross-border cooperation has appeared in cases such as an FBI reward for an alleged CJNG figure tied to Puerto Vallarta and U.S. actions against CJNG-linked timeshare fraud networks.
A harder U.S. cartel strategy
The arrests come after Washington moved cartels further into a national-security frame. A White House order signed in January 2025 opened the process to designate cartels and other cross-border groups as foreign terrorist organizations or specially designated global terrorists.
The FBI later told Congress that designated groups included the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG. That shift gives prosecutors and investigators more tools, including terrorism-related charges in some cases. It has also sharpened U.S. pressure on cartel money, weapons flows, and cross-border command structures.
Mexico has drawn a clear line around sovereignty. Sheinbaum has said the relationship can include information sharing and coordination, but not the presence of foreign agents carrying out operations in Mexico. That boundary has become central as the United States expands cartel operations near the border and pursues cases with direct links to Mexican groups.
The FBI tally does not provide a state-by-state breakdown of the arrests or identify which cartels were most affected. It also does not say how many cases will become federal indictments. The figures show the scale of Washington’s current push, with arrests, inspections, drug seizures, and weapons cases moving through the same border-security channel.
