Treasury to freeze US assets of Jalisco cartel leaders

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The Treasury Department says it will freeze assets in the U.S. of two alleged fentanyl traffickers and block Americans from doing business with Mexican companies linked to them.

The sanctions outlined this week by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control target Juan Carlos Bañuelos Ramirez, Gerardo Rivera Ibarra, Fornely Lab S.A. de C.V. and Inmobiliaria Universal Déjà Vu S.A. de C.V.

Bañuelos, 46, is an alleged cell leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) illegally exporting fentanyl and methamphetamine to the United States. The Treasury Department alleges Bañuelos launders money, procures precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of fentanyl and uses a lab in Mexico to produce counterfeit Oxycodone pills that he smuggles into the U.S. hidden in machinery.

The man nicknamed “Pistones” (Piston) allegedly also has purchased automatic weapons and drones for the Jalisco cartel and owns or controls Inmobiliaria Universal Déjà Vu – a real estate company.

The Treasury Department also describes Rivera, a.k.a. “El Guerito” (Blondie), as a CJNG cell leader sending fentanyl, meth and cocaine to the U.S. out of Jalisco, Mexico. Rivera, 54, allegedly controls Fornely Lab, a wholesale trading company.

The Office of Foreign Assets control is partnering to impose the sanctions with Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

“Building on our strong partnerships across the U.S. government and with our counterparts in Mexico, we will continue to act against the financial flows of CJNG and other criminal organizations that harm Americans through the illicit drug trade,” said Brian E. Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

He said this is the fifth time in one month that the federal government has imposed sanctions on Mexican fentanyl traffickers.

DEA says the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel are the principal exporters of fentanyl to the U.S.

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