The Trump administration’s Department of the Treasury announced new sanctions on Tuesday against four different cartel drug lords accused of peddling fentanyl into the United States.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched the sanctions against four different individuals associated with La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM), a violent Mexican drug cartel that has smuggled illegal aliens and deadly drugs into the United States and is designated as a foreign terror organization.
“Today’s action underscores our commitment to intensify the pressure on violent drug cartels like LNFM, who continue to traffic deadly fentanyl and other drugs, smuggle illegal aliens over our Southwest border, and attack law enforcement,” Bessent charged. “The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to target the cartels and other violent organizations that attempt to exploit our communities and harm Americans.”
The sanctions freeze any and all property owned by these four individuals currently present in the United States and require financial institutions to immediately report them to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Their cartel, the Treasury Department pointed out, traffics people, fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine into the United States and carries out kidnappings and murders in Mexico.
The sanctions specifically target four siblings, including the co-leaders of the cartel, Johnny and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga. The State Department recently announced cash prizes of $5 million and $3 million, respectively, for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the two cartel leaders. The Treasury also hit two siblings of Johnny and Jose, Ubaldo Hurtado Olascoaga and Adita Hurtado Olascoaga, with sanctions.
“Ubaldo oversees sicarios, or hitmen, for LNFM and has illegally mined and extracted mercury and uranium for the organization,” the Treasury wrote, adding that “Adita has trafficked arms for her brothers from the United States into Mexico to use against rival cartels in Mexico” and has laundered drug proceeds for the foreign terror organization.
These sanctions come after the Treasury announced an earlier round of sanctions against six people tied to the Sinaloa Cartel, another notorious criminal organization that is now designated as a foreign terror organization.
