(NewsNation) — A Colombian criminal organization known for its cocaine trafficking operation has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of State announced Tuesday.
Clan del Golfo, which is also known as the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, is the latest transnational crime group to earn the designation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterized the group as a powerful criminal organization with thousands of members.
The group relies primarily on the trafficking of cocaine to fund its criminal activity and has been responsible for terrorist attacks against elected officials, law enforcement officials, military members and Colombian citizens, officials said. Rubio also said in a released statement that the organization had been specially designated as a global terrorist.
“The United States will use all available tools to protect our national security interests and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists,” Rubio wrote in a social media post.
Clan del Golfo evolved from right-wing paramilitary squads that fought Marxist guerrillas in Colombia in the 1990s and 2000s and has an estimated 9,000 members. In September, the Trump administration added Colombia to nations that have failed to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, was also sanctioned by the United States after officials alleged that Petro allowed cartels to flourish in his country and allowed cocaine to be moved into the U.S.
The designation came more than a year after the Justice Department sentenced Dairo Antonio Úsuga, the former Clan del Golfo leader, to 45 years in prison after he was convicted of operating a continuing criminal enterprise that is responsible for exporting multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico and Central America.
Once there, the cocaine was then imported into the United States. In addition, the Treasury Department also sanctioned five Colombian nationals as leaders of the organization.
The Trump administration began designating international criminal organizations as global terrorist groups on President Donald Trump’s first day back in the White House in January. A month later, several Latin American criminal organizations, including Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Sinaloa cartel, the Jalisco New Generation cartel and others as foreign terrorist organizations.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.