Violent cartel members have issued threats against US tourists in Mexico as a means to send a warning to FBI Director Kash Patel, amidst ongoing efforts by the administration to curb drug and weapon trafficking.

Extraordinary banners have been erected in Baja California responding to recent raids and weapons seizures conducted by the FBI.

The warnings, which surfaced in messages, indicated that starting Sunday, gunmen from the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel would begin to violently target US citizens present in Mexico.

In particular, tourists and Americans living in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose have been warned they will be targeted.

These threats, composed in Spanish, declared: ‘You will bear the responsibility. We will demonstrate the commencement of this war on 5/10/2025 targeting all Americans living in areas under our influence… especially those residing in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.

‘We control these territories and we will prove what we can achieve if you continue apprehending our members and seizing our cargo and arms.’

Cartels are known to hang ‘narco banners’ from bridges and overpasses in an effort to deliver a message to governments or their rivals.

But Christian Agúndez Gómez, mayor of San Jose del Cabo maintained there is no credible proof of the existence of the banners.

‘It’s not true,’ he said. ‘We have investigated the information and determined the banners were never placed.’

He added: ‘There are necessary investigations that are still ongoing. We will monitor results issued by the attorney general.

‘Unfortunately, social media can sometimes work against individuals’ peace of mind, thus it is crucial to verify information with official sources before sharing it.’

Local news media criticized the mayor’s remarks, asserting they had obtained banner images from several sources, as reported by Border Report.

The banners were specifically addressed to Patel and Terry Cole, director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Mexico’s attorney general in Baja California Sur said there were instances in which banners had been falsely placed to spread fear in the community, despite having no known gang or cartel links.

The Trump administration earlier this month declared the United States is in an ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels amid recent strikes on boats in the Carribean trying to cross into US waters.

‘The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,’ a memo seen by AP states.

Trump directed the Pentagon to ‘conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.’

‘The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations.’

Earlier this week, the US Treasury sanctioned a network of companies and their affiliates that allegedly supplied precursor chemicals to make fentanyl to a faction of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

A dozen Mexico-based companies and eight of the people managing them were accused of using their pharmaceutical, laboratory, chemical, cleaning and real estate businesses to purchase the chemicals and provide them to the Sinaloa cartel’s ‘Chapitos’ faction, run by sons of the former Sinaloa leader Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

The cartel is among an expanding number of Latin American criminal groups that the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, part of an ongoing effort to more aggressively go after drug-trafficking groups.

‘President Trump has made clear that stopping the deadly flow of drugs into our country is a top national security priority,’ Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley wrote in a statement. 

‘The Treasury Department is committed to dismantling the complex financial networks that support these terrorist organizations.’