The US administration has taken the unusual step of officially designating eight drug cartels in Latin America as terrorist groups in a bid to reduce their influence

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explore designating major cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Early this month, Rubio moved to designate six Mexican cartels and two other groups as FTOs.

The Mexican Senate has approved the deployment of U.S. Army Green Berets into the country to target drug cartels in a move to appease President Trump, who has moved swiftly to shut down the border and crack down on drug smuggling.