The United States confirmed that it classified the Colombian criminal group Gulf Clan as a terrorist organization. For decades, this criminal group has been identified as the main armed and drug-trafficking player in the South American country, responsible for vast networks of cocaine production and trafficking, extortion, and territorial violence.
Its inclusion on the terrorist list by the Department of the Treasury and other branches of the U.S. government is justified by the “global reach and dangerousness” of this criminal organization. It symbolizes a hardening of the international strategy against transnational mafias and a signal that Washington views these organizations not only as organized crime groups, but as a direct threat to hemispheric security.
Beyond the rhetoric, this decision has concrete legal, financial, and diplomatic impacts. In Colombia, where the administration of President Gustavo Petro has pushed peace negotiations with the Gulf Clan in search of a way out of the internal conflict, the U.S. measure generates additional tensions over how structural violence is addressed.
US designates Colombia’s Gulf Clan criminal organization as a terrorist group
The government of the United States has designated the Gulf Clan — self-styled as the Gaitanist Army of Colombia (EGC) — Colombia’s most powerful criminal organization, as a terrorist group, a move that intensifies international pressure on this network devoted to drug trafficking and extortion.
Heir to the former far-right paramilitary groups that for decades spread terror and death across vast areas of the country, after the 2006 demobilization, it evolved into armed groups that ultimately formed a wide-reaching criminal organization with clear links to drug trafficking.
Over the past two decades, it has consolidated itself as one of Colombia’s most influential criminal organizations, with significant territorial presence in regions such as Uraba and transnational connections for drug trafficking. With thousands of members and armed structures, it has competed with other illegal forces for control of routes and illicit economies.
For Washington, the decision to include this organization in the terrorist category reflects an expanded reading of security. In recent years, the United States has begun to use legal tools traditionally reserved for ideological insurgent groups also against cartels and organized crime networks, recognizing their capacity to sow violence, corrupt institutions, and threaten civilians.
This logic has been applied before in other cases, such as the designation of Mexican cartels or international gangs that operate violently and transnationally, such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
The U.S. administration says that groups such as the Gulf Clan not only move illicit drugs but also employ coercive tactics and have networks that span multiple countries, making them players more akin to terrorist organizations than to conventional drug traffickers.
This interpretation allows for the application of laws that entail harsher sanctions and broader international cooperation instruments, including assistance to dismantle their finances and bank accounts, freeze assets, and obstruct their global operations.
An organization with global reach
According to the statement published by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the decision is based on the organization’s global reach and dangerousness, which operates in at least 28 countries across four continents, according to Colombian police.
A report from four years ago says that the Gulf Clan maintains a presence in countries in the Americas such as the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and El Salvador. In Europe, its operations extend to Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Ireland, England, Italy, Albania, and Ukraine.
Added to all this is that the group — according to Colombian authorities — has managed to establish connections in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Australia, consolidating routes and destinations for drug trafficking.
This designation fulfills a request made several months ago by Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, who was born in Colombia, after he asked for this criminal organization to be included under this type of definition.
“The Gulf Clan is not just a drug cartel; it is a Foreign Terrorist Organization that has inflicted incalculable suffering on the Colombian people and threatens the stability of our region,” a senior U.S. State Department official told the local outlet El Tiempo.
“This group is a direct threat to our national security interests, and we will use every tool at our disposal — sanctions, law enforcement, intelligence, and international cooperation — to dismantle its operations, cut off its financing, and hold its members accountable,” the U.S. official added to the Colombian outlet.
What does this legal label mean for the Gulf Clan?
The terrorist designation carries profound legal and economic consequences. Legally, the United States can apply sanctions under specific rules that restrict any financial transaction with individuals or entities linked to the group. This includes blocking assets within U.S. territory or under the control of U.S. citizens, and prohibiting business dealings that could facilitate resources, logistics, or operational support for the organization.
International firms, banks, and trade brokers that inadvertently become linked to the Clan’s assets may face severe penalties, including civil or criminal proceedings for violating rules set by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
From a law enforcement perspective, the terrorist label enables more robust international cooperation tools. Allied countries can share information, intelligence, and joint actions more quickly and with fewer legal obstacles than in the past, allowing coordinated efforts to dismantle financial networks and drug trafficking routes.
For the leaders and members of the Gulf Clan, this classification may mean a dramatic reduction in their room for maneuver outside Colombia and greater risks of capture or extradition to the United States, where authorities have pursued high-profile drug trafficking cases in recent years.
However, there is also the risk that this international pressure could raise local-level violence. The history of hardline policies against criminal organizations in Latin America has shown that when a structure feels cornered, it may intensify its use of violence to maintain territory or demonstrate strength.
In Colombia, where a complex war is already being waged against multiple armed players, the impact of this classification may have effects on the everyday security of communities living in areas under the Gulf Clan’s influence.