WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury has launched a major financial offensive against Mexico’s most powerful criminal enterprise, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), unveiling targeted sanctions and a sweeping bank alert designed to disrupt the group’s highly lucrative fuel-theft operations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on two Mexican citizens and nine companies across the real estate, transportation, and financial services sectors. U.S. officials accuse the network of running a massive fuel-smuggling ring that evades Mexican taxes and generates tens of millions of dollars annually for the cartel. Concurrently, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory warning U.S. banks to watch for financial “red flags” tied to fuel being illegally trafficked from the U.S. into Mexico.
“Today’s action highlights the extent to which Mexico’s cartels are expanding beyond traditional drug trafficking to generate revenue,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, noting that these illicit funds continue to fuel the distribution of deadly narcotics in America.
The crackdown follows aggressive expansion by the CJNG, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports now operates in 21 of Mexico’s 32 states—surpassing the rival Sinaloa Cartel. Organized crime in Mexico has increasingly hijacked the energy sector, tapping pipelines to siphon off diesel and gasoline, which is then funneled into cartel-controlled service stations or sold illegally on the streets.
The financial squeeze comes amid significant leadership upheaval for the cartel. In April, Mexican special forces arrested Audias Flores Silva, known as “The Gardener,” a top CJNG commander who was recently hit with expanded U.S. federal indictments for methamphetamine trafficking and money laundering. Flores Silva was considered a primary successor to the cartel’s notorious leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), whose death during a military raid in February triggered a wave of retaliatory violence that claimed more than 70 lives.
By targeting the cartel’s diversified economic interests, U.S. authorities aim to choke off the sophisticated financial infrastructure supporting what the Trump administration designated last year as a foreign terrorist organization.
Source: CBS News
