Ice cream parlors, pharmacies linked to ruthless Mexican cartel, US Treasury says

The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it has imposed sanctions on two Mexican companies — an ice cream parlor and a local pharmacy — for allegedly using fentanyl trafficking proceeds to finance their activities as part of the Sinaloa cartel.

The move comes as rival cartel factions are in a deadly conflict with each other and the authorities after the surprise arrest on US soil of the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in late July, which is believed to have sparked an internal power struggle within the group.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (the U.S. agency that combats illicit funds and money laundering), people previously charged with money laundering have started a chain of ice cream parlors and popsicle shops in the state of Sinaloa.

The Sinaloa Cartel often uses the revenues from the international drug trade to set up businesses, pouring money into everything from fraudulent timeshare operations to restaurants to launder money.

According to OFAC, another individual used drug trafficking proceeds to open a pharmacy and convenience store in the northern state of Sonora.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to using every tool at our disposal to combat the cartels that are poisoning our communities with fentanyl and other deadly drugs,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

The sanctions come days after the US denied accusations by the Mexican president that the US was partly responsible for the escalation of the cartel war that has left dozens of people dead in Sinaloa.

The cartel is responsible for a significant portion of the fentanyl trade into the U.S. They make precursor chemicals from China and India to make synthetic opioids and smuggle them into the United States, where they cause about 70,000 overdose deaths each year.

Jesús Norberto Larrañaga Herrera, known as “El 30,” and Karla Gabriela Lizárraga Sánchez, founded “Nieves y Paletas,” an ice cream chain with several store locations in the capital that used drug proceeds, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

OFAC alleges that there are ties between a pharmacy and a supermarket in Sonora and drug trafficker José Arnoldo Morgan Huerta, nicknamed “Chachio.” His brother, Juan Carlos Morgan Huerta, better known as “Cacayo,” is a “plaza boss” for the Sinaloa cartel and oversees drug trafficking in the border city of Nogales.

“Today’s action is part of a concerted effort by the government to counter the global threat of drug trafficking into the United States, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year and results in countless nonfatal overdoses,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in the statement.

Separately, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it would impose sanctions on five leaders of The Colombian Clan del Golfo (CDG), one of the largest drug trafficking networks.

The Gulf Clan “is one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in the country and is a significant contributor to human trafficking through the Darién Gap,” officials said in a statement.

In July, US President Joe Biden announced a series of proposals aimed at curbing the ongoing drug epidemicThese include a push for Congress to pass legislation to establish a registry for pill presses and tableting machines and to toughen penalties for convicted drug smugglers and fentanyl traffickers.