Father of Marine vet murdered in Mexico praises Trump admin sanctions on Sinaloa cartel: 'Palpable' momentum

The father of a 31-year-old Marine veteran from Arizona who was murdered at an illegal checkpoint while driving to the beach in Mexico in 2024 said he did not expect Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to reference his son's name when announcing new sanctions against the Sinaloa cartel this week.  

Quets noted the contrast between the Trump administration's message and what he heard from officials on both sides of the border five and a half months ago. He said his grieving family was told repeatedly by officials in the wake of Nicholas' slaying in the Mexican state of Sonora that "we're sorry, but there's nothing that can be done." 

"That, to me, is just infuriating because [as] somebody that's spent a lot of time providing security for others and promoting welfare, the knowledge that nothing can be done against bullies and criminals, that perspective is wrong. You just have to confront it," Quets told Fox News Digital. "We can win any fight. And we can win this fight. And knowing that President Trump is taking it very seriously, yeah, that gives me hope, gives my family hope that this will come to a good ending for so many people. It'll never come to good ending for me, the things we want back, you know, they're not coming back, but we can protect your family. We can protect other families." 

Quets praised Trump for using "all instruments of U.S. national power" against the cartels and described receiving "overwhelming" support from the National Security Council, Justice Department and the FBI.

"It's moving, it never moves as fast as you want as a parent, but he has taken our case very seriously, and I'm super happy for that. And everything we discussed, he has moved out on and as fast, I'm convinced, as fast as he could," Quets said. 

"The United States government's capable of doing anything it wants to do in this world if it makes it important enough. And it's just how important we want to make it," Quets said. "If you pull the right levers and you do the right things and you do them in the name of justice, in the name of security of American citizens, you're always doing the right thing."

Quets declined to reveal updates about his son's case amid the active investigation but welcomed those extraditions as a sign of the growing momentum from U.S. agencies in confronting this "evil." 

"I am pleased. I'm not surprised because I did know it could be done. And I did feel like it would be done under President Trump, but I'm pleased that these extraditions have started," Quets said.

Nicholas Quets, who was employed by Pima County, Arizona, in water reclamation and ran his own side business as a welder at the time of his death, was making a drive many Americans had made before down to the Mexican beach town of Rocky Point when he was murdered on Oct. 18, 2024, during the height of the election campaign, after evading an illegal checkpoint in Caborca, according to his father. 

The family later learned the route had become more treacherous with rival cartels fighting over the area, and two elderly American women were killed at a similar checkpoint about a month beforehand, though that story received little news coverage at the time. Nicholas Quets was pursued by cartel members on an about seven-mile chase before they ran his pick-up truck into a cement median, and the alleged cartel members "shot him in the back as cowards," according to Doug Quets. 

Just days after his son's murder, Doug Quets said he met with vice presidential candidate and then-Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, while he was campaigning in Arizona. Trump also met with the grieving father, who praised both Republicans for their humanity in speaking with him for about 15 minutes each while they were in the "fight of their lives" in the swing state. 

"There was no script, there was nothing else. President Trump just put all his blind faith in me to just tell the truth," Quets said. "Nick was an innocent U.S. citizen driving to the beach and was executed by cowards in the back." 

"You have to accept the fact that, you know, there is good and there is bad and there is evil in the world. And my son, through no fault of his own, confronted evil. And that evil, you know, is now being held accountable and is going to be made to pay."