Washington DC, USA.- The US announced sanctions against 8 leaders and lieutenants of the Mexican cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana for trafficking fentanyl and migrants. Credit: Korín de la Cruz
The United States announced this Thursday economic sanctions against eight leaders and lieutenants of the Mexican cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana for trafficking fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as for migrant smuggling across the border with Mexico.
Those sanctioned “have carried out atrocious acts, from controlling drug routes to arms trafficking, money laundering and murder,” declares US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Atlanta, according to the speech distributed to the press before his intervention.
The sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are directed against “one of the most powerful and violent cartels in Mexico,” the Treasury Department reports in a statement.
La Nueva Familia Michoacana used to traffic methamphetamine but in recent years it expanded its activity to the production of fentanyl that it enters the United States across the border “through buses, among other means of transportation,” he details. Once inside, he sends it to cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, Chicago and Charlotte.
Washington also accuses the cartel of being involved in human trafficking.
“For example, members of La Nueva Familia Michoacana mount photographs and videos in which people appear under interrogation or at risk of being murdered” with which migrants “falsely affirm to United States immigration officials their supposed need to apply.” asylum,” he said. In exchange, the migrants pay them money.
It also forces them to transport drugs and if the migrants “do not comply with the order (…) they are told that they and their families will be killed,” the statement states.
Additionally, the cartel uses tobacco industry workers for drug trafficking.
The eight sanctioned are Rodolfo Maldonado Bustos, a “powerful” member, whom Washington accuses of controlling drug routes from Ciudad Altamirano to the Zihuatanejo-Lázaro Cárdenas area, both in the state of Guerrero, in southwestern Mexico.
Josué Ramírez Carrera is the “financial leader and third in line of leadership of La Nueva Familia Michoacana” and is in charge of “money laundering” through the used clothing business, the United States states.
He also accuses him of being involved in arms trafficking: “He directs people throughout the Rio Grande Valley to hide weapons inside packages of used clothing destined for Mexico City.”
Josué López Hernández, another of those sanctioned, “is a key lieutenant of La Nueva Familia Michoacana and has important regional connections with other cartels such as the CJNG”, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, states the US Government.
Completing the list are David Durán Álvarez, who sends drugs to Houston (Texas), Uriel Tabares Martínez “a hitman” known as “The Doctor” for the violence “with which he tortures and murders”, Kevin Arzate Gómez, another “key lieutenant” with associates along the US-Mexico border, Euclides Camacho Goicochea, who primarily traffics methamphetamine, and Lucio Ochoa Lagunes.
As a result of the sanctions, all assets and interests in assets of those sanctioned that are in the United States or that are in the power or control of Americans are blocked.
In parallel with the OFAC sanctions, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a warning with information to help U.S. banks and other financial institutions protect themselves from activities related to the supply of fentanyl.
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