How Trump’s war on cartel cash can stop fentanyl enablers — and save American lives

President Trump ordered international cartels be designated terrorist organizations.

Ruben Navarrette : This unleashes financial warfare on Mexican drug organizations, their facilitators and Chinese money-laundering organizations that move and control the proceeds of fentanyl.

The fentanyl epidemic on our shores has already claimed nearly half a million American lives and crippled the US health system with trillions in costs.

Elaine Dezenski : The Trump administration and Congress should build a strategy to unleash unrestricted financial warfare against the cartels.

She says the fentanyl epidemic’s costs are moving well into the trillions , and the U.S. can’t fight this war alone.

The success of a full-scale crackdown on cartel cash will hinge on mutual trust and responsibility, she says.