"Los Chapitos" Mexican cartel members sanctioned by U.S. Treasury for fentanyl trafficking

Nine members of the "Los Chapitos" faction of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for fentanyl trafficking the agency announced in a news statement on Tuesday. A tenth individual, a leader of Clan del Golfo, one of Colombia's most significant cocaine cartels, was also sanctioned. 

Today's actions by the U.S. show the government will continue to "target the criminal enterprises threatening international security and flooding our communities with fentanyl and other deadly drugs," said Brian E. Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. All properties, transactions or interests in properties in the U.S. or outside within the control or possession of U.S. persons need to be blocked and reported, the news statement said.

The nine "Los Chapitos" sanctioned are part of the Sinaloa Cartel, which the U.S. government says is responsible for large-scale fentanyl and methamphetamine production and trafficking into the United States. In April 2023 the Justice Department charged 28 members – including "El Chapo" Guzman's three sons Ivan Guzman Salazar, Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez – of the Sinaloa Cartel with fentanyl trafficking. The indictment said cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chiles to torture their rivals while some of their victims were "fed dead or alive to tigers."