The Biden government wants to show that it is taking action in the face of the worsening opioid crisis in the United States, which has caused more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the country through April 2021, 28% more than in the same period of the year. last year.
It is a new executive order to reinforce the fight against the Mexican drug cartels.
The United States government offered rewards of $ 5 million for the arrest of the children of drug trafficker El Chapo Guzmán: Ovidio Guzmán López, Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López.
“The Department offers rewards of up to $ 5 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Mexican Ovidio Guzman Lopez , Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López , ” the statement said.
According to the statement, the four are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel and each is subject to a federal indictment for their involvement in illicit drug trafficking.
It is a new executive order to reinforce the fight against the Mexican drug cartels, through which it was ordered to freeze all the assets of criminal organizations such as Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos.
These actions seek to disrupt the global supply chain and financial networks that allow synthetic opioids and chemical precursors to reach the United States while disrupting the flow of drugs domestically.
The US authorities called the citizens who have relevant information about the children of Joaquim Guzmán Loera to contact the number 16195406912 through WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal.
The State Department, led by Secretary Antony Blinken, assured that it is “taking important steps” to improve efforts to interrupt and deter transnational criminal activity worldwide, especially that involving drug and firearms trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, cybercrime, and money laundering.
He also charged that transnational criminal organizations are, to a large extent, “responsible for bringing these drugs and related violence to our communities,” causing “the worst drug epidemic in history.”
The US Treasury Department detailed that it sanctioned 25 entities and individuals under new powers granted in executive orders that allow it to target those who benefit from trafficking proceeds, regardless of any direct link to known drug lords or cartels.
Sanctions on Chinese companies include Wuhan Yuancheng Gongchuang Technology, which the Treasury says receives online orders for chemical precursors used to make fentanyl, as well as other companies that are involved in the sale or transportation of such products.
In Brazil, the Treasury imposed financial sanctions on Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, which was born in the prisons of Sao Paulo in the early 1990s and is now considered the most powerful criminal organization in Brazil, helping to flood Europe with cocaine. .
The addition of PCC to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list follows moves made in 2019 by the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to quietly add suspected PCC members to a list of organizations not eligible for a US visa.
The Treasury has also targeted a list of drug lords, cartels, and gangs in Mexico and Colombia.
The sanctions deny designated entities access to transactions in US dollars and freeze any assets they may have in the United States. But organized crime groups in recent years have been turning to crypto-assets and other methods to bypass the American financial system.
To combat drug trafficking, the Treasury previously relied on the Foreign Narcotics Chiefs Act of 1999 and an earlier executive order of 1995 that relied on more traditional cartel structures with more easily identifiable leaders. The new structure allows the Treasury to target a broader range of individuals, such as those who receive assets derived from drug trafficking.
“The current drug trade is no longer based on crops that require a large area, but on synthetic materials and chemical precursors,” one of the US officials told reporters.
“The cartels operate in a more diffuse and decentralized manner, which hinders our ability to develop comprehensive sanction packages against drug traffickers,” he added.
A second Biden executive order creates a new interagency council on transnational organized crime to enhance cooperation between the Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, Treasury and State departments and the Office of National Intelligence.
Its goal is to improve communications between the intelligence and law enforcement communities and the private sector to identify and target criminal networks, according to an administration fact sheet.
