Treasury Sanctions Two Guatemalan Drug Trafficking Organizations Backing the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on November 13 sanctioned two Guatemalan drug trafficking organizations, the Los Mendoza DTO and the Los Huistas DTO, for supporting Mexico's largest narco-terrorist groups, the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), both of which the Trump Administration designated last year as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Based in Guatemala, the two organizations control strategic trafficking corridors along the borders with Honduras and Mexico, facilitating the receipt, storage, protection, and cross-border movement of narcotics destined for the United States and other international markets, the Treasury said, making them indispensable logistics partners for the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG in moving fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other illicit drugs through the region.
"Today's action exposes the ties between politically influential Guatemalan criminal organizations and Mexican foreign terrorist organizations that facilitate the flow of deadly narcotics into the United States," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "The Treasury Department will continue to target the criminal networks that enable violent organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG to traffic drugs across our borders."
Founded in the 1980s, the Los Mendoza DTO is one of Guatemala's oldest and most powerful criminal organizations. The family-based organization supports the Sinaloa Cartel's trafficking network by facilitating access to border crossings, clandestine airstrips, storage facilities, and local protection networks, and is also involved in contract killings and money laundering. Active since the 1990s, the Los Huistas DTO is a critical link in the cocaine trafficking supply chain from South America through Mexico into the United States; OFAC had already designated it on March 18, 2022, pursuant to Executive Order 14059.
The action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 14059 and Executive Order 13224, as amended. In a concurrent action, the Department of State designated Los Lorenzanas as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. As a result of the sanctions, all property and interests in property of the designated organizations that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from transactions involving them. (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury)
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国财政部大楼正门与 Albert Gallatin 像。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本图已裁为 16:9。 / Photo: The U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., with the Albert Gallatin statue. Photo by Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped to 16:9.
