Treasury Secretary Scott Besant views the crackdown on the financial activities of drug cartels as part of a broader national security effort. This series of sanctions has been coordinated through the Homeland Security Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Mexican Financial Intelligence Unit, and Treasury investigators. U.S. authorities now regard the cartels as a national security threat related to drugs, having been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) earlier this year.
According to the Treasury, Armando de Jesús Ojeda Avilés has been accused of leading a money laundering network associated with the Sinaloa cartel's Los Chapitos faction. Jesús Alonso Espro Félix has been identified as the primary financial broker for this network, overseeing large digital currency transfers. Rodrigo Alarcón Palomares is responsible for cash withdrawals in the U.S. and was indicted by a Colorado federal grand jury in April 2024 for laundering drug proceeds through cryptocurrency.
The Treasury also sanctioned Alfredo Orozco Romero, described as a security consultant and debt collector linked to cocaine trafficking, as well as family businesses associated with the network.
Another money laundering operation is linked to Jesús González Peñuelas, whose associates are involved in drug trafficking, large cash transfers, and laundering activities related to methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. The Treasury confirmed the identities of Castulo Bojorquez Chaparro, Freddy Ismael García Sandoval, Luis Arnulfo Moreno Zamora, Baltasar Sainz Aguilar, and Noé de Jesús Castro Rocha, all connected to this network.
The Treasury stated that these networks help convert cash from fentanyl into cross-border digital transfers. These sanctions build on years of U.S. enforcement actions against cartel financing related to cryptocurrency.