(Washington) American judicial authorities on Thursday made public the indictment of two alleged leaders of a Mexican drug trafficking cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, for smuggling large quantities of heroin into the United States.
Previously, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced economic sanctions against eight people linked to this cartel, accused of trafficking fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamines, but also of smuggling migrants to the United States. United.
Rodolfo Maldonado-Bustos, 59, and Euclides Camacho-Goicochea, 51, both believed to reside in Mexico, are targeted by indictments issued in August 2017 but only made public recently, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
“Not only are we holding cartel leaders accountable for their crimes, but we are also working with our Treasury partners to hit the cartel’s criminal operations where it hurts them most – their profits,” the Attorney General commented. Merrick Garland, cited in the text.
The latter was responsible for repatriating the profits from trafficking from the United States to Mexico, according to the same source.
“The leaders we are targeting have committed heinous acts, from controlling drug routes to arms trafficking to money laundering to murder,” Yellen said during a trip to Atlanta.
“Our sanctions will cut off cartel leaders from their ill-gotten money and make it harder for them to bring deadly fentanyl onto our streets,” she added.
The measures taken by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) aim to financially suffocate this network known for sending illicit drugs from Mexico to Dallas and Houston, Texas, as well as to other cities such as Chicago and Atlanta, according to Ms. Yellen.
The sanctions target the organization’s leaders, as well as top lieutenants who Treasury says significantly engaged in and encouraged the illicit drug trade.
“Since 2000, more than a million people in the United States have died from drug overdoses,” said President Joe Biden’s Department of Economy and Finance, noting that “fentanyl and other opioids synthesis represent the vast majority” of these deaths.
The Nueva Familia Michoacana is also known for human trafficking, for example featuring, in photos and videos, migrants, falsely threatened with being murdered, in order to then be able to request asylum in the United States. “In exchange for this service, individuals pay money to La Nueva Familia Michoacana,” the Treasury says.
The cartel “is also known for forcing people into the United States illegally with drugs” so that they can then be sold there. If these individuals refuse, “they are informed that they and their families will be killed,” details the Treasury.
In addition to these measures, the Treasury Department also issued an advisory to help U.S. financial institutions detect signs of the illicit fentanyl supply chain.
