In December 2019, President Donald Trump offered to intervene in Mexico, i.e. “to go after the Drug Cartels”. Mexico’s president AMLO turned down Trump’s “generous offer”.

President Trump confirmed that his administration was considering categorizing “drug cartels” as “terrorists”,  akin to Al Qaeda –with the exception that they are “Catholic terrorists”. 

They would henceforth be designated by Washington as “foreign terrorist organizations”.

To read this article in the following languages, click the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

In recent developments (January 2026) in the immediate wake of the attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro, MAGA Donald Trump has announced that he now intends to intervene militarily in Mexico.

“We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels.

“The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said in an interview with broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News.”

Invading Mexico is tagged by Trump as a humanitarian endeavor on behalf of the Mexican People. It’s “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) against the bad guys. 

The Drug Cartels are being used as a pretext and a justification to intervene militarily in Mexico. The Invasion of Mexico is “on hold”. Who’s Next? Trump has his eyes on Cuba.

 It is estimated that 300 billion dollars (annually) worth of drug money (2003 data) is routinely laundered.

“The trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs–from cocaine to pharmaceuticals–generate enormous profits, and detecting and seizing the money and assets derived from drug trafficking are critical to U.S. counterdrug efforts.

The actual dollar amount of money laundered in the United States from the proceeds of drug trafficking is unknown, although interagency estimates suggest that between $100 billion and $300 billion in U.S. currency is laundered annually.” (Justice.gov. 2003 data).

.

How to Undermine the Drug Cartels without having to Invade a Sovereign Country?

The answer is obvious. Implement forceful measures which paralyze the laundering of dirty money, within the realm of global finance. No easy task. Will it be addressed by the Trump Adminstration?

In a rather cryptic tone, Mother Jones begs the question:

“Make Money Laundering Great Again” (MMLGA)

According to Mother Jones, “President Donald Trump’s return to power has cast doubt on the future of the most monumental anti-kleptocracy reform push in decades… Increasingly, the United States has become the epicenter of the multitrillion-dollar offshore economy”.

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury  with a mission to “safeguard the financial system from illicit activity, counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.

On March 6, 2015, four months before Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination, a controversial FinCen report regarding money laundering violations at Trump’s Taj  Mahal’s Casino was released:

“The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today imposed a $10 million civil money penalty against Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort (Trump Taj Mahal), for willful and repeated violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). In addition to the civil money penalty, the casino is required to conduct periodic external audits to examine its anti-money laundering (AML) BSA compliance program and provide those audit reports to FinCEN and the casino’s Board of Directors”

Trump Taj Mahal, a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, admitted to several willful BSA violations, including violations of AML program requirements, reporting obligations, and recordkeeping requirements. Trump Taj Mahal has a long history of prior, repeated BSA violations cited by examiners dating back to 2003.

Additionally, in 1998, FinCEN assessed a $477,700 civil money penalty against Trump Taj Mahal for currency transaction reporting violations. (FinCen)

Download: The Complete text of the 1998 report (2 pages)

According to the FinCen report Trump was not considered involved, “liable” or “legally answerable” for the 2015 “money penalty”, largely due to a petition for bankruptcy pertaining to Trump Taj Mahal initiated in September 2014.  FinCen acknowledged that the Bankruptcy Court approval of the Trump Taj Mahal’s settlement was granted on March 4, 2015, a day prior to the release of their report.

Laundering “Dirty Money” at the Trump Taj Mahal? 

Despite the ‘Fact” that “Trump was not involved”,  the evidence of Fraud and Money laundering at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino which Donald had tagged the 8th Wonder of the World is documented. When was the fraud and money laundering carried out?  Since the inauguration of the Casino in 1990. Over a period of 26 years.

The Trump Taj Mahal Associates, LLC were also responsible for Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violations and the failure to report the laundering of dirty money from the outset in 1990. Two penalties were recorded respectively in 1998 and 2015.

Who Are the Narco-Terrorists? 

Double Standards. Deux Poids, Deux Mesures. 

President Trump declares war on Venezuela, “capturing” the President of a sovereign nation-state, accusing him with scanty evidence of conducting illegal narcotics transactions. 

“On my direct orders, the United States Armed Forces have conducted an extraordinary military operation in the Venezuelan capital to bring the outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro to justice. He and his wife, who was also arrested, will now face criminal proceedings based on a 2020 indictment by the US Department of Justice for multiple federal crimes, including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.”

Trump is referring to the March 2020 indictment led by the notorious Attorney General William Barr, who played a key role in the 1988 indictment of “former CIA asset and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega”

A  legal procedure contemplated under Trump’s (first) presidency was initiated by Attorney General William Barr, who was legal advisor and Attorney General to the late President George H.W. Bush.

“The move was reminiscent of the 1988 indictment of former CIA asset and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. The Noriega indictment resulted in a US invasion of Panama that left hundreds – possibly thousands – of dead civilians in its wake.

Attorney General William Barr took to the podium [in March 2020] to announce Maduro’s indictment. Barr happens to be the same person who gave the first Bush administration [G.H. W. Bush] the legal justification to invade Panama just over 30 years ago”[1988]. (David DeCamp, March 2020)

What this suggests is that the remnants of this 2020 “indictment” led by William Barr (including DOJ documents) on charges of trade in narcotics is slated to be applied in the 2026 procedure against Nicolas Maduro. See video below.

Video: Attorney General William Barr “Indictment”. March 2020

Will William Barr play a role in the 2026 procedure? Highly unlikely.

In Barr’s book entitled One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, he cautiously urged “his fellow Republicans to pick someone else as the party’s nominee for the 2024 election, calling the prospect of another presidential run by Mr. Trump “dismaying.””

Concluding Remarks: In contrast to the ridiculous accusations of trade in narcotics directed against Nicolas Maduro, Donald Trump’s Trump’s Taj Mahal Atlantic City Casino was known as a convenient “vehicle for money laundering, with a significant amount of the illicit funds tied to narcotics trafficking.”

Download

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen)

The Complete Text of the FinCen 2015 Report

The Complete Text of FinCen 1998 Report.

In solidarity with the People of Venezuela

In 1975-76. Prof. Michel Chossudovsky was Advisor to the Venezuelan Minister of Planning (CORDIPLAN) at the time when the government of President Carlos Andres  Pérez was negotiating the nationalization of the petroleum industry.

He was also responsible for coordinating an interdisciplinary study on Poverty in Venezuela entitled El Mapa de la Pobreza.

Chossudovsky also viewed the Nationalization of the Oil Industry as a means to the adopting and financing a carefully designed social and economic project (including the restructuring of the State apparatus) which would ultimately lead to the elimination of poverty in Venezuela.

The Mapa de la Pobreza Report was shelved by the Council of Ministers. Encabetado por el Consejo de Ministros, a few months prior to launching of the Nationalization of Oil in January 1976.

His book entitled La Miseria en Venezuela (1977) was for many years a best seller in Venezuela, adopted in secondary schools, colleges and universities.

The title of the introductory chapter was “The Planning of Poverty” in a country which today is the Number One Oil Economy on the Planet.

The Oil Economy belongs to the People of Venezuela.

Today and Forever, my thoughts and my heart are with the People of Venezuela.

The Children of Venezuela Constitute the Future of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Michel Chossudovsky, Montreal, January 11, 2026