The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday issued new sanctions against Mexico’s La Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel and its leaders, brothers Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, alias ‘El Pescado’ and Jose Hurtado Olascoaga, nicknamed ‘El Fresa’, for their prolific contribution to drug trafficking.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has said the cartel and its leaders pose a «significant risk» to the United States as they are behind the «growing» presence of rainbow fentanyl, which in various forms is a risk to children and youth.
This decision is aimed at hitting one of the «most violent and depraved» drug cartels, emphasized Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, who put the number of victims of the drug in the United States last year alone at 108,000.
Now, in addition, as part of its new commercial strategy, Nelson has warned that the cartel has taken rainbow fentanyl to the streets «as part of a deliberate effort to generate addiction among children and young people».
Nelson has highlighted as «fundamental» the cooperation between the different US offices, such as the Treasury and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the Mexican government to carry out this and other types of punitive sanctions.
As part of these sanctions, all properties and interests owned by the named entities and individuals in the United States or controlled by U.S. citizens will be blocked, as well as any type of transaction involving the Hurtado Olascoaga brothers and the cartel.
«The measure is part of a government-wide effort to counter the global threat posed by drug trafficking into the United States, which causes the deaths of tens of thousands of people each year, in addition to countless overdoses,» the Treasury said in a statement.
La Nueva Familia Michoacana is the successor to the original La Familia Michoacana, which was included on the U.S. Drug Trafficking Organizations List in 2009. This cartel operates in around 35 Mexican municipalities and is dedicated to the sale of other drugs, such as marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine.
For their part, the Hurtado Olascoaga brothers «are two of the most wanted criminals in Mexico,» whose authorities are offering rewards of up to 500,000 Mexican pesos (about 25,000 euros) for information leading to their arrest.
In the case of Jhonny ‘El Pescado’, he is also the subject of an arrest warrant from a court in the Southern District of Florida for two counts of possession and conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the United States.
