Mexican drug cartels see Trump's threats as a 'joke': report

President Donald Trump has designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which could set the stage for sending American special operations forces into Mexico to kill local drug kingpins.

However, ABC News spent some time with members of one of the cartels recently and found they don't appear at all worried about the prospects of the American military being used to disrupt their business for the simple reason that demand for drugs and human smuggling is still high and shows little sign of slowing.

"The demand is still there," one smuggler explained to ABC News. "The deal is already done. We can't do anything. Whatever they change there, we have to keep sending people."

ALSO READ: 'Despicable': Pete Buttigieg thrashes Trump for plane crash press conference rant

Additionally writes ABC News, there is little chance that cartels will run out of weaponry in the near future given how easy America's lax gun laws make it to procure arms.

"In the U.S. it is easy to find them," a cartel member told ABC News. "They sell them in stores and here in Mexico you don't find that."

The cartels did acknowledge that the presence of the American military would make their jobs more difficult, ABC explained, but they added that "the idea that it can be totally stopped, they said, is a joke."