During a trip to Atlanta to promote President Joe Biden’s administration’s efforts to crack down on drug importation into the United States, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced new sanctions against members of a Mexican cartel accused of fentanyl traffickingcocaine, methamphetamines and migrants across the southern border.
Among those sanctioned are eight members of the La Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel, a notoriously violent group that fights for territorial control with other Mexican cartels.
Also this Thursday, Yellen issued a notice to banks to help them identify and report suspicious transactions related to the sale and purchase of chemicals and equipment used to manufacture fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
“Combating fentanyl trafficking is a significant challenge,” he said in a speech at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building in Atlanta. “It will not be solved overnight. But I will be clear: the president and I will do everything we can to combat this crisis.”
The Nueva Familia Michoacana is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico and dominates large sectors of the south and center of the country, especially areas known for their drug production. It is famous for manufacturing and distributing drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamines.
The group is one of those that have quickly integrated into the increasingly lucrative migrant smuggling industry, amid a historic wave of migration to the United States.
The criminal group is based in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero and is known as La Nueva Familia Michoacana to distinguish itself from an older gang that was largely expelled from the western state of Michoacán in the mid-decade. of 2010.
In 2022, the Biden administration sanctioned cartel leaders, known as the Hurtado brothers, for manufacturing “rainbow” fentanyl pills that, according to the US Treasury Department, were “part of a deliberate effort to promote addiction.” between children”.
Yellen’s trip also came after Biden signed the Fentanyl Eradication Act (FEND) into law as part of the additional spending package passed in April that, among other things, declares that international fentanyl trafficking is a national emergency.
Fentanyl, a powerful opioid, is currently the deadliest drug in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States has increased more than sevenfold between 2015 and 2021.
Mexico and China are the main sources of fentanyl and related substances trafficked into the United States, according to the DEA, the US anti-drug agency. Almost all of the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl come from China.
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