The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Guatemala’s Los Mendoza and Los Huistas drug trafficking organizations for providing material support to Mexican cartels. The measures target logistics networks that control trafficking corridors along Guatemala’s borders with Honduras and Mexico, facilitating narcotics shipments destined for the United States and other markets.
Los Mendoza received designations under Executive Order 14059, which targets illicit drugs, and Executive Order 13224, as amended, which targets terrorism, for supporting the Sinaloa Cartel. Los Huistas received a terrorism designation for supporting both the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, adding to its March 18, 2022, designation under Executive Order 14059. Both Guatemalan organizations provide infrastructure and protection for receiving, storing and moving narcotics across borders.
The sanctions block the designated organizations’ property and interests in property in the United States or under the possession or control of U.S. persons, with reporting to OFAC required. Entities owned 50% or more, directly or indirectly, individually or collectively, by blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized or exempt, transactions involving blocked property by U.S. persons or within or transiting the United States are generally prohibited. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate significant transactions for the designated organizations also risk prohibitions or strict conditions on opening or maintaining U.S. correspondent or payable-through accounts.