The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 21 individuals and 25 entities supporting the Sinaloa Cartel, targeting the Los Mayos faction’s leadership, control of key trafficking routes in Tijuana and Mexicali, and associated money laundering and corruption networks. The designations include Ismael Zambada Sicairos, known as Mayito Flaco, who Treasury identified as the head of Los Mayos following his father’s July 2024 arrest. The action covers senior advisers and security figures, plaza bosses and lieutenants involved in narcotics trafficking and violence, financial facilitators, and current or former political and public security figures accused of protecting cartel operations. It also reaches money exchanges and companies across the hospitality, real estate, security, entertainment, transportation and fuel sectors that Treasury linked to cartel members or their associates. The measures were imposed under authorities targeting illicit drug trafficking and terrorism, with several previously sanctioned cartel figures redesignated under the terrorism authority. Property and interests in property of the designated persons within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, as are entities owned 50% or more by blocked persons. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from transactions involving them, while foreign financial institutions may face secondary sanctions for knowingly conducting or facilitating significant transactions on their behalf.
U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions 46 Sinaloa Cartel leaders, facilitators and entities tied to Baja California border operations
The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned 21 individuals and 25 entities linked to the Sinaloa Cartel’s Los Mayos faction and its Tijuana and Mexicali operations. The action targets cartel leadership, trafficking and money laundering networks, allegedly corrupt officials and associated businesses, while exposing certain foreign financial institutions to secondary sanctions risk.