US Treasury sanctions Sinaloa cartel faction Los Mayos in Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned members of a Sinaloa cartel faction known as Los Mayos, one of the groups that has tormented Sinaloa’s capital in an ongoing war for control.
The move came on the same day that U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley is visiting Mexico, and after the Trump administration designated the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist group earlier this year.
Hurley is meeting with Mexican authorities and business leaders to discuss strategies for combating drug trafficking, cartel operations and illicit financing. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that the official’s main message will be that the department “will not allow Mexico-based drug cartels to access the U.S. financial system.”
It’s part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to crack down on cartels. In addition to pressuring Mexico’s government to more aggressively pursue the criminal groups, the administration has also doled out rounds of sanctions to cartel leaders, banks it alleged facilitated money transfers for cartels and a rapper accused of laundering money for the groups.
On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the entirety of Los Mayos, the leader of it’s armed wing, Juan José Ponce Félix, as well as five people and 15 companies with alleged connections to the group along the U.S.-Mexico border. It froze all the assets of those listed in the sanctions, and blocked any transactions with them or any related entities or businesses. It also sanctioned another local gang affiliated with the cartel, known as Los Rugrats.
U.S. Treasury officials said that the faction was responsible for producing and trafficking fentanyl and other drugs to the United States and that it controlled a key artery along the border. They also alleged that the group was involved in kidnapping, money laundering and more near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Los Mayos are a faction of the Sinaloa cartel loyal to former cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in U.S. federal court last month. For more than a year, the faction has been locked into open warfare in the city of Culiacan with Los Chapitos, another faction of the cartel led by sons of former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Among those sanctioned for their involvement with the group was Hilda Araceli Brown, a congressmember belonging to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party and the former mayor of Rosarito, near the border with California. The U.S. Treasury accused her of allowing cartel affiliates to control parts of the local government, something Brown sharply rejected on her social media, saying she was the target of “slander.”
By MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press
