Do you remember regularly reading about huge busts of transnational criminal gangs during previous administrations? I don’t. Mostly we’d see reports of the atrocities they committed, but consequences seemed rare.

Under Trump 2.0, with Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel leading the way, it’s becoming a regular occurrence. On Thursday, Patel announced another huge takedown, this time in Puerto Rico:

Another major win for this FBI, our Homeland Security Task Force, and our law enforcement partners in Puerto Rico.

More than 80 subjects have been indicted in the takedown of a Mayagüez-based transnational criminal organization responsible for large-scale narcotics trafficking across Puerto Rico and into the continental United States, including using the U.S. Postal Service to move controlled substances and generating millions of dollars in illicit proceeds every year.

Mayagüez is a city of about 70,000 on the western coast of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the U.S., roughly 99 miles from the capital, San Juan. 

Patel said the operation was yuge and involved coordination with multiple agencies:

This was a massive operation. Thirteen SWAT teams, CIRG aviation assets, FBI San Juan personnel, the Homeland Security Task Force, DOJ, and our state and local law enforcement partners came together to dismantle the organization’s leadership, disrupt its distribution network, and shut down another major drug pipeline poisoning American communities.

These transnational criminal organizations should understand the message: this FBI and our partners are bringing every available resource to the fight.

The gang was pulling in tens of millions of dollars and trafficking in enough fentanyl to theoretically kill millions. While that would only happen if a whole bunch of circumstances lined up perfectly, an unlikely prospect, it still gives you a sense of the crazy amounts of deadly narcotics they were siccing on the populace.

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🚨81 Members of a Violent Gang in Puerto Rico Charged with Drug Trafficking and Firearms Violations as Part of @HSTaskForce Initiative

“These 81 defendants are alleged drug traffickers of ‘Los Baja Deo’ also known as ‘LBD,’ who maintained a steady supply of highly addictive and potentially lethal substances that endangered the community, fueled addiction and exposed entire public housing projects in Mayagüez and nearby neighborhoods to violence and chaos,” said @AGToddBlanche.

“During this investigation, law enforcement seized 21 firearms. It is estimated that during the span of the conspiracy, this drug trafficking organization was responsible for the distribution of at least 340 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and at least 2,200 kilograms of cocaine, among other drugs, generating over $49 million in proceeds. Let this be a warning to those that are terrorizing our communities, our Homeland Security Task Forces around the country are unified to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States.”

If the alleged perps are convicted on the drug charges, they face a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars. The firearms charges could add more, and they’d forfeit almost $50 million in illicit profits.

Now this is what I voted for.