US Treasury sanctions a chain of ice cream shops and a pharmacy tied to the Sinaloa Cartel
MEXICO CITY — The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it has imposed sanctions on two Mexican companies — an ice cream shop and a local pharmacy — for allegedly misappropriating proceeds from fentanyl trafficking to finance their activities related to the Sinaloa Cartel.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (the U.S. agency that combats illicit funds and money laundering), people previously charged with money laundering have started a chain of ice cream parlors and popsicle shops in the state of Sinaloa.
The Sinaloa Cartel often use their income from the international drug trade to set up businesses, investing money in everything from fraudulent timeshare operations to restaurants to launder money.
According to OFAC, another individual used drug trafficking proceeds to open a pharmacy and convenience store in the northern state of Sonora.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to using every tool at our disposal to combat the cartels that are poisoning our communities with fentanyl and other deadly drugs,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.
The sanctions come days after the US rejected allegations by the President of Mexico that the US was partly responsible for a increase in cartel war in which at least 30 people were killed in Sinaloa.
The cartel is responsible for a significant portion of the fentanyl trade into the U.S. They manufacture chemicals from China and India to make synthetic opioids and smuggle them into the United States. where it causes approximately 70,000 overdose deaths each year.
Jesús Norberto Larrañaga Herrera, known as “El 30,” and Karla Gabriela Lizárraga Sánchez, founded “Nieves y Paletas,” an ice cream chain with several store locations in the capital that uses drug proceeds, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
OFAC said a pharmacy and a convenience store in Sonora had ties to drug trafficker José Arnoldo Morgan Huerta, nicknamed “Chachio.” His brother, Juan Carlos Morgan Huerta, known as “Cacayo,” is a “plaza boss” for the Sinaloa cartel and oversees drug trafficking in the border city of Nogales.
“Today’s action is part of a government-wide effort to counter the global threat of drug trafficking into the United States, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year and results in countless non-fatal overdoses,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in the statement.
In July, US President Joe Biden announced a series of proposals aimed at curbing the ongoing drug epidemicThese include a push for Congress to pass legislation to establish a registry for pill presses and tableting machines and to toughen penalties for convicted drug smugglers and fentanyl traffickers.
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