US sanctions leaders of Mexican cartel, offers financial reward for information

Audio By Carbonatix

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned leaders of Mexican cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana on Tuesday while the State Department announced reward offers of up to $8 million for information that could lead to their arrests.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four people affiliated with the drug cartel, which the U.S. designates as a “foreign terrorist organization,” the department said in a statement.

Those sanctioned on Tuesday, all of whom were siblings, included the group’s co-leaders: Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, the Treasury Department said.

The U.S. government says the cartel has trafficked fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine to the United States, and has laundered the proceeds of these illicit drugs through the U.S. financial system.

The cartel has also engaged in extortions, kidnappings and murders, according to Washington.

A month after Republican President Donald Trump took office, the United States designated many drug cartels as “global terrorist organizations” and stepped up immigration enforcement actions against alleged gang members in the United States.

Such designations and sanctions disrupt a group’s finances through steps such as asset freezes and travel bans on its members and associates.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)