Fentanyl and scams against American tourists place the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Washington’s sights (2024)
The United States is closing in on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). In tandem with the pressure it has applied on the Sinaloa Cartel, a rival organization to the CJNG, Washington has launched multiple measures to rein in the cartel led by Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho.” For the past 18 months, U.S. authorities have been targeting what they consider to be the two most important players in the trafficking of fentanyl, a potent drug that pushed overdose deaths in the country to over 107,000 by 2022. The Treasury Department accuses the CJNG not only of being responsible for a “significant proportion” of the trafficking of the opioid, but of having set up a fraud and money laundering scheme that has netted some 6,000 American victims. Just seven months ago, a dozen Mexican companies were sanctioned in an attempt to wear down the organization through bank accounts used in real estate scams.
The latest target is scams involving timeshares, a type of lodging that typically consists of vacation rentals with multiple owners that are used for a limited amount of time per year. An FBI investigation indicates that the CJNG received information from resort workers about the U.S. owners of these properties in Mexico, and their personal information. With those details in hand, call center operators would call or mail those owners posing as lawyers, sales representatives, or real estate agents. The stories they orchestrated to create the fraud varied depending on the victim, but usually involved a promise to buy or rent. To complete the transaction, they would ask for the payment of taxes or fees — sometimes more than once — which would be returned upon completion of the sale or rental.
The scam did not end there. In some instances, they would later call the victims and pretend to be a law firm that could represent them, taking money from them again. There are also records that some were targeted on three occasions, in the last case by the same call center operators who posed as Mexican and U.S. government officials investigating the timeshare scams. The money ended up in Mexican bank accounts opened by shell companies, and from there in the pockets of drug traffickers or used to acquire luxury real estate or build timeshare resorts to be utilized in future fraudulent schemes. This took place mainly in tourist cities, such as Puerto Vallarta. U.S. authorities estimate that at least $300 million was defrauded through this illegal mechanism.
This week’s sanctions against three accountants and four Mexican companies come in the context of the U.S. authorities’ attempt to stifle the drug cartels. Just as they did with the Sinaloa Cartel, especially the Los Chapitos faction, led by the sons of imprisoned kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, they have launched a wave of economic and financial measures against El Mencho’s cartel. “Combating fraud and TCO (transnational criminal organizations) activity are U.S. Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) National Priorities,” the Treasury Department notes in a joint statement with the FBI. It is one step in a series of measures.
Last November, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against three Mexicans and 13 companies based in Mexico, also linked to the timeshare fraud. In June 2023, it sanctioned two high-ranking members of the CJNG for trafficking weapons and drugs, and for having participated in fuel theft, known as huachicoleo, another illegal business that brings in a lot of money for these criminal organizations. “The CJNG relies on a network of criminal activity that ultimately strengthens its ability to traffic fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the United States,” OFAC said at the time. And the sentences began to roll in as well. In April this year, 12 CJNG members were convicted in the United States of conspiring to traffic methamphetamine.
The cartels’ use of call centers in Mexico began to become clearer after the tragedy of the five young people who disappeared in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, in August 2023. The subsequent diffusion of a video showing one of the young men killing his own friends under criminal orders shocked the country. The press subsequently reported that two of the young men were looking for work and two days before the kidnappings had contacted a person who worked in a call center run by members of the CJNG. At the time the group of friends was lost track of, they had traveled to a location in the city to meet with the cartel operator. Almost a year later, the investigation into the case has made very little progress.
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(NewsNation) — Two powerful Mexican drug cartels are not only operating fentanyl and other illicit drug markets in all 50 U.S. states but have also successfully eliminated their drug-dealing competition using violence and other means, according to a report issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
While primarily involved in drug trafficking, especially methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin, the cartel diversifies its criminal activities, engaging in extortion, kidnapping, illegal mining, logging, and fuel siphoning.
The indictment alleges that all 41 suspects operated under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. "The Jalisco New Generation Cartel casts a dark shadow that extends far beyond the borders of a single nation and into the streets and communities like Houston and beyond," U.S. Attorney Alamdar S.
The two men, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán, helped lead arguably the world's most powerful drug-trafficking organisation: the Sinaloa cartel.
The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa, CDS, after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the Guzmán-Zambada Organization, the Federation, the Blood Alliance, or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, international organized crime syndicate based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico that specializes in illegal ...
In the state capital of Culiacán, the Sinaloa Cartel has also increased its involvement in drug dealing, particularly of marijuana and methamphetamine-related products. The organization also has cells operating in other states in the country, such as Sonora, Baja California, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Chiapas.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación) or CJNG, is a Mexican criminal syndicate, based in Jalisco and headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ("El Mencho").
One of the world's most powerful drug lords, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes (Latin American Spanish: [neˈmesio oseˈɣeɾa seɾˈβantes]; born 17 July 1966, or 17 July 1964), commonly referred to by his alias El Mencho ([el ˈmentʃo]), is a Mexican drug lord and leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an organized crime group based in Jalisco.
PHOENIX (AP) — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the top leader and co-founder of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, eluded the reach of U.S. law enforcement for decades as the criminal organization evolved into the world's biggest manufacturer and smuggler of illicit fentanyl pills and other drugs to the United States.
The richest drug dealer according to Forbes is currently Joaquin Guzman Loera (Mexico) the head of the Sinaloa Cartel who has an estimated fortune of USD£;1 billion (GBP£;722 million) gained from drug trafficking.
Women such as Guadalupe Fernández Valencia, to date the highest-ranking woman in the Sinaloa Cartel to emerge into the public eye, who ran logistics and was a money launderer for El Chapo, and Marllory Chacon Rossell, a Guatemalan known as "Queen of the South" who ran one of the largest money laundering and drug ...
Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the illegal drug trade and maintaining prices at a high level. The formations of drug cartels are common in Latin American countries.
"There is a presence of Mexican cartels in California, including San Diego, which is a fundamental place because of its proximity to Baja California, especially Tijuana," the professor told NBC 7.
The Mexican cartels are using Arizona like their own personal postal service,” Mayes said in discussion with our host, Ted Simons. “They are bringing fentanyl across the border. In 2022, we know that more than half of all the fentanyl seized in the United States was seized in Arizona.
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