The United States Department of Justice announced this Friday that it filed new charges in the federal courts of the Southern District of New York, Northern District of Illinois and District of Columbia, against several leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and their partners in China.
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According to court documents, among the defendants are Iván Guzmán Salazar, Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Ovidio Guzmán López, all of them sons and heirs of the criminal structure of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán , who is currently serving a life sentence in a prison of Maximum security in the US.
In the case of Ovidio Guzmán López, alias El Ratón, he is accused in a separate file for the same crimes. The US Department of Justice noted that seven of the 28 defendants are already awaiting the extradition process.
With these new legal actions, the government headed by Joe Biden tightened the persecution against the Mexican drug lords and their Asian partners.
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“Today, the Department of Justice announces significant enforcement actions against the world’s largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation, led by the Sinaloa Cartel and powered by Chinese precursor chemical and pharmaceutical companies,” said Attorney General, Merrick Garland.
In the context of the global fight against fentanyl trafficking, the US justice system is targeting leaders of this organization based in Sinaloa, such as Los Chapitos. The announcement comes after a high-level meeting between the US and Mexican governments to coordinate efforts against fentanyl. PHOTO: Twitter)
“Today’s indictments send a clear message to Chapitos, the Sinaloa Cartel, and criminal drug networks around the world that the DEA will stop at nothing to protect the national security of the United States and the safety and health of the American people”, stated the Prosecutor.
The announcement follows a high-level meeting in Washington of US and Mexican government officials to reaffirm their commitment to combat trafficking in this synthetic drug, which is considered a severe security problem for the Joe administration. Biden.
In the message, Assistant Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco explained that the efforts seek to stop the flow of chemical precursors from Asia and also to dismantle the network of clandestine laboratories for the final production of this synthetic opioid, mainly in some regions of Mexico. .
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“Today’s indictments target all elements of the Sinaloa Cartel trafficking network and reflect the Department of Justice’s commitment to attacking all aspects of this threat: from the chemical companies in China that generate fentanyl precursors to the illicit laboratories that produce the poison, networks and money launderers and assassins that facilitate its distribution. Just as we have attacked terrorists and cybercriminals around the world, the Department is now waging a relentless campaign to disrupt the production and trafficking of fentanyl, before it can reach its victims,” Monaco said.
For her part, Anne Milgram, director of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Los Chapitos was a pioneer in the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl, a drug that she described as the deadliest threat the US has ever faced, and pointed to the children of Joaquín Guzmán Loera to flood that country during the last eight years, causing the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
“Over the past year and a half, the DEA has proactively infiltrated the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Chapitos network, gaining unprecedented access to the highest levels of the organization and following them around the world. I thank the men and women of the DEA for their exceptional work on this case,” Milgram said.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, assured that “This accusation is another example of how this administration confronts the cartels and their transnational criminal networks and sends a clear message that we will hold them accountable.”
