US sanctions two leaders of Mexican drug cartel and two related companies

The United States sanctioned two leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) on Tuesday for fentanyl trafficking and two companies linked to them, according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

Those sanctioned are Juan Carlos Bañuelos Ramírez and Gerardo Rivera Ibarra. Both are described as leaders of CJNG cells that send methamphetamine and fentanyl to the United States.

The Department also noted in the report that Bañuelos Ramírez “launders money, acquires chemical precursors and oversees production laboratories within Mexico.”

For his part, Rivera Ibarra, according to Washington, also sends cocaine to US territory and “operates in Jalisco, Mexico and has ties to Audias Flores Silva, a high-ranking member of the CJNG designated pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.”

“Over the past month, the Biden-Harris administration has imposed five new rounds of sanctions “to transnational criminal organizations, including traffickers and revenue-generating schemes that fuel the flood of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States by CJNG and other cartels,” said Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, according to the statement.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the Treasury Department, also sanctioned two Mexican companies: Fornely Lab, a wholesale trade company, for having ties to Rivera, and Inmobiliaria Universal Deja Vu, for its ties to Bañuelos.

According to the statement, the CJNG “is one of the largest producers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl to the United States” and the operation was coordinated with the Mexican government.

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