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dozen Mexico-based companies and eight of the people managing
them were accused of using their pharmaceutical, laboratory,
chemical, cleaning and real estate businesses to purchase the
chemicals and provide them to the Sinaloa cartel's “Chapitos”
faction, run by sons of the former Sinaloa leader Joaquín “El
Chapo” Guzmán.
One of the businesses, Sumilab, previously faced sanctions in
2023 by the Biden administration, but was able to maintain its
“corporate structure” through a number of other front companies,
Treasury officials wrote in a statement. The Monday measures
freeze all assets in the U.S. and block U.S. transactions with
the businesses and people sanctioned.
The cartel is among an expanding number of Latin American
criminal groups that the Trump administration has designated as
foreign terrorist organizations, part of an ongoing effort to
more aggressively go after drug-trafficking groups.
“President Trump has made clear that stopping the deadly flow of
drugs into our country is a top national security priority,"
Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K.
Hurley wrote in a statement. "The Treasury Department is
committed to dismantling the complex financial networks that
support these terrorist organizations.”
The Sinaloa cartel and other criminal organizations receiving
the foreign terrorist organization designation in recent months
differ from others seen as terrorist groups because they're
largely non-political and more focused on raking in profit.
Despite that, Trump said last week that his administration was
in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, following strikes on
boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean that has set
much of Latin America on edge.
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