Cartel hotel: Feds say resort tied to kingpin El Mencho faces US sanctions
USA TODAY
Federal authorities said the beachfront resort near Puerto Vallarta was part of a fradulent timeshare network preying on vulnerable older Americans.
Vacationers seeking a Puerto Vallarta-area getaway online in recent years might have encountered Kovay Gardens, a 22-room resort with a private beach and four swimming pools abutting the Pacific Ocean.
But federal authorities say the Mexican beachfront destination was part of a fraudulent timeshare network benefiting the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, whose leader – Nemesio Ruben Osequera Cervantes, better known as El Mencho – was fatally shot Feb. 22 near Guadalajara as part of a Mexican military operation.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued sanctions against Kovay Gardens in addition to five Mexican citizens and 17 Mexican companies linked to the network, which authorities say often targeted vulnerable older Americans.
According to a Treasury Department news release announcing the sanctions, many of the sanctioned people and entities are based in or near Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination that serves as a strategic hub for the violent cartel, which the U.S. Department of State last year labeled a foreign terrorist organization for its role in international narcotics trafficking.
Among those sanctioned were resort founder Carlos Humberto Rivera Miramontes and his corporate network of 13 companies, as well as several people conducting call-center operations that allegedly helped carry out the timeshare fraud, the release said.
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