The U.S. State Department has officially designated Venezuela-based cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), further ramping up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, accused by the U.S. of heading the group.

The U.S. had warned on November 16 it would slap cartel de los Soles with the designation after the U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions against the group.

The U.S. claimed the cartel was "responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe."

The Treasury said in July it was treating cartel de los Soles as a "specially designated global terrorist" and claimed at the time it provided "material support" for FTOs including Tren de Aragua—a Venezuelan group that started off life a

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