The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions targeting the Sinaloa Cartel. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control
May 10 (UPI) — The administration of President Joe Biden has blacklisted a son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, three Sinaloa Cartel members and two Mexican companies as the United States tries to stymie the trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly drugs north across the U.S. southern border.
Fentanyl, which is between 50 and 100 times more potent than morphine, is one of the illicit drugs fueling the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States, which has killed hundreds of thousands and counting.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has said that Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel is one of two organized crime syndicates that are responsible for the vast majority of fentanyl and methamphetamine making its way into the hands of Americans.
Since the senior Guzman was convicted and incarcerated in the United States in 2019, several of his children known as Los Chapitos, or The Little Chapos in English, have sought to pick up his mantle at the top of his cartel.
On Tuesday, the Treasury blacklisted one of the so-called Los Chapitos — 36-year-old Joaquin Guzman Lopez.
U.S. officials accuse Joaquin Guzman Lopez of managing what are called super labs and trafficking drugs into the United States.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez and the three other Los Chapitos of Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez have repeatedly been indicted in the United States on drug and related charges, including in a 13th superseding indictment unsealed April 14. The Guzman Salazar brothers, along with Ovidio Guzman Lopez, were previously sanctioned in 2012.
Of the four Los Chapitos, only Ovidio Guzman Lopez is in police custody. He was captured in Mexico in January.
A $5 million reward was issued by the State Department in 2021 for information that leads to Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s arrest, while a $10 million reward has been offered for the Salazar brothers.
Raymundo Perez Uribe, 72; Saul Paez Lopez, 29; and Mario Esteban Ogazon Sedano, 42, were also sanctioned Tuesday by the Treasury as Sinaloa Cartel members.
U.S. officials said Uribe leads a drug chemical supplier network, Lopez coordinates drug shipments for his cousins Ovidio and Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Sedano purchases precursor chemicals and operates drug laboratories.
Sinaloa-based chemical and lab equipment company Sumilab was also sanctioned Tuesday for providing and shipping chemicals for the cartel, with real estate business Urbanizacion, Inmobiliaria y Construccion de Obras being designated for being owned by Sedano.
“Today’s action continues to disrupt key nodes of the global illicit fentanyl enterprise, including the producers, suppliers and transporters,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement Tuesday.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2020, more than 564,000 people died from an opioid overdose in the United States.