NOTE TO STUDENTS: Before answering the questions, read the "Background" and watch the video under “Resources” below.

1. Define the following as used in the article:
-drug cartel
-sanctioned/sanctions
-narco-terrorist
-designated

2. The first paragraph of a news article should answer the questions who, what, where and when. List the who, what, where and when of this news item. (NOTE: The remainder of a news article provides details on the why and/or how.)

3. a) What is the Gulf Cartel?
b) What crimes is this cartel involved in?
c) How do foreign drug cartels use U.S. land?

4. What warning did CBP have for all of the cartels?

5. a) What is the Cartel del Noreste?
b) When/what actions did the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control take against the Cartel del Noreste?
c) When/what actions did the Office of Foreign Assets Control take against the Sinaloa Cartel?

6. a) What is a letter of marque?
b) What would a letter of marque bill allow private operators to do?
c) What is your reaction to this proposed bill? Explain your answer.

7. a) What designation did the U.S. State Department give several Mexican drug cartels and transnational criminal gangs?
b) What does this allow U.S. authorities to do?

8. President Trump's Executive Order 14157 signed the day he was inaugurated states:
"It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these [cartel] organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures, thereby protecting the American people and the territorial integrity of the United States."
Do you support this policy? Explain your answer.

9. Why is this a newsworthy story? What responsibility does the media have to report on it?