‘Can’t Even Sleep’: Drug Lords Reportedly Quake In Their Boots After Trump Unleashes Cartel Crackdown

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on drug cartels and unprecedented pressure on the Mexican government to take more action has drug lords feeling the pinch, The New York Times reported.

A flurry of drug busts and arrests has left cartel bosses scaling back operations and laying off employees, according to the NYT’s Sunday report. Other cartel operatives, in fear of imminent arrest or death, have ceased operations entirely and gone into hiding as the Trump administration has successfully coerced the Mexican government to take on the producers of illicit drugs flowing through the U.S. southern border.

The recent offensive has put a dent on fentanyl production in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, the home base of the ruthless Sinaloa cartel.

“You can’t be calm, you can’t even sleep, because you don’t know when they’ll catch you,” a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel said to the NYT, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The most important thing now is to survive.”

A shift in policy began on day one of Trump’s return to the Oval Office. The Republican signed executive orders that spurred deployment of U.S. troops to the southern border, the designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and resumption of border wall construction. The administration has also reportedly bolstered a covert drone program to detect fentanyl labs across Mexico.

The campaign largely became a bilateral effort after Trump threatened sweeping tariffs on all Mexican imports unless the government did more to control illegal immigration and the illicit drug trade. Faced with the possibility of economic ruin, President Claudia Sheinbaum