DHS video honors Marine killed by Mexican cartel, touts Trump's crackdown on 'terrorists'

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FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security released a video honoring late Marine Corps veteran Nicholas Quets and highlighting his death at the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel, which the department says it is taking "decisive action" to address. 

"Drug cartels are being called what they truly are: foreign terrorist organizations," the two-and-a-half-minute video states before showing an interview with retired Army Lt. Col. Warren D. Quotes Jr. and Patricia Quets, whose son Nicholas was shot and killed at a Sinaloa Cartel checkpoint on his way to Rocky Point, Mexico, with friends on Oct. 18, 2024. 

The cartel members attempted to steal Quets' pickup truck before shooting him in the back through the heart, ending his life at 31 years old. 

"I felt validated and vindicated," Quets' father says in the video, explaining how Trump spoke with him about his son's death after receiving no feedback from the Biden administration or the Kamala Harris campaign.

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"Designating all those organizations as foreign terrorist organizations, it makes things safer for us and puts them on the defensive. We want to send a message that targeting Americans anywhere has legal consequences. I thank President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem for dedicating their lives to protecting others and for being good stewards of the American taxpayers' dollars, efforts and resources."

Quets' mother says in the video, "I want to thank everybody for putting this together and giving us a voice."

In a press release, DHS outlined the ways it has "taken decisive action to dismantle drug cartels," including the president signing an executive order on his first day in office to "designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations," giving law enforcement the ability to "crack down" on sex trafficking operations from the cartels in the United States. 

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Additionally, on what would have been Quets' 32nd birthday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on six individuals and seven entities that were allegedly operating a money-laundering scheme that supported the Sinaloa Cartel. 

"Nicholas Quets was a patriot who served our country honorably and was killed by these cartel cowards who shot him in the back. President Trump and Secretary Noem are honoring his memory by dismantling the Sinaloa cartel and other drug cartels that profit from trafficking, violence, and lawlessness," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

"President Trump's strong leadership and these arrests and prosecutions of scum-of-the-earth cartel leaders are delivering results. The days of unchecked cartel violence are over."

In an interview with Fox News Digital leading up to the presidential election, Quets' father said, "I do believe in Donald Trump as a man of his word - not the TV character, not the billionaire - but a person who I looked at face to face and talked with."

"America got a little bit weaker. My family was destroyed, but America got a little bit weaker. Mexico got a little bit weaker. Those cartels got a little bit stronger. And the only way to reverse that is to go after these people." 

Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.