{"id":3620,"date":"2026-08-25T18:17:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=3620"},"modified":"2026-08-25T18:17:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:17:03","slug":"trump-border-crackdown-reportedly-cuts-cartel-revenue-by-3-billion-as-fentanyl-deaths-decline-officials-highlight-enforcement-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=3620","title":{"rendered":"Trump Border Crackdown Reportedly Cuts Cartel Revenue by $3 Billion as Fentanyl Deaths Decline, Officials Highlight Enforcement Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The numbers are in, and they tell a story that no amount of Democratic talking points can spin away.<\/p>\n<p>FinCEN \u2014 the Treasury Department\u2019s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network \u2014 analyzed bank reports of suspicious transactions linked to suspected human smuggling. They identified 67,540 reports totaling nearly $5 billion. The overwhelming majority occurred in 2023 and 2024, under Biden, when more than 7,000 suspicious transaction reports were flagged every quarter. By the second half of 2025, after Trump\u2019s policies had fully taken hold, fewer than 2,000 reports were flagged per quarter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-3\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"2010591\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the numbers prove President Trump has put the smugglers \u201con the defensive.\u201d That is the understatement of the year. The cartels built their business model on Biden\u2019s open border. They charged per person, per load, per crossing. When Biden was president, the crossings were so frequent and so numerous that cartel income from human smuggling hit historic highs. Close the border, enforce the law, and the revenue stream dries up. Supply and demand applies to criminal enterprises too.<\/p>\n<p>The fentanyl numbers are the ones that put human faces on the statistics. According to CDC data highlighted by the Trump White House, deaths from synthetic opioids \u2014 which includes fentanyl \u2014 dropped 22 percent, from 48,913 in 2024 under Biden to 38,084 in 2025 under Trump. Drug overdose deaths overall fell 14 percent, from 81,313 to 69,973.<\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=USAFeatures&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=2088244129113194912&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fusajournal.news%2F2026%2F08%2F21%2Ftrumps-crackdown-just-slashed-by%2F&amp;sessionId=b0fc06f9e60e2f67ea8e26bfcf92254833d9c3c6&amp;siteScreenName=USAFeatures&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"2088244129113194912\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ten thousand Americans who didn\u2019t die from fentanyl overdose in 2025. Ten thousand families that didn\u2019t get a call. Ten thousand funerals that didn\u2019t happen. That\u2019s not a statistic. That\u2019s what enforcement actually delivers to real people.<\/p>\n<p>The left spent four years telling America that border enforcement was cruel, that it didn\u2019t work, that the humane approach was to let people in and hope for the best. The humane approach produced $5 billion in cartel income and 48,913 fentanyl deaths in a single year. Trump\u2019s approach \u2014 closing the border, deporting criminals, blowing up cartel drug-smuggling boats \u2014 cut cartel income by more than half and saved ten thousand American lives. Which approach was actually cruel?<\/p>\n<p>The work isn\u2019t finished. The cartels still have deep resources and tentacles throughout the Mexican and Venezuelan governments. The fentanyl pipeline still has remnants. The fight isn\u2019t over just because the numbers are moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=USAFeatures&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=2088244129113194912&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fusajournal.news%2F2026%2F08%2F21%2Ftrumps-crackdown-just-slashed-by%2F&amp;sessionId=b0fc06f9e60e2f67ea8e26bfcf92254833d9c3c6&amp;siteScreenName=USAFeatures&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"2088244129113194912\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But direction matters. And the direction under this administration \u2014 on every metric that counts \u2014 is the right one.<\/p>\n<p>Enforcement works. Stopping illegal aliens works. Kinetic strikes on drug smuggling boats work. Arresting illegal alien criminals and sending them back works.<br \/>\nredstate<\/p>\n<p>Biden told America it couldn\u2019t be done. The cartel\u2019s bank account and the CDC\u2019s overdose statistics say otherwise. Remember that in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The numbers are in, and they tell a story that no amount of Democratic talking points can spin away. FinCEN \u2014 the Treasury Department\u2019s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network \u2014 analyzed &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3622,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620\/revisions\/3622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}